what goes around

I've recently come to realize that finding true friendships is a lot like finding true love. As a friendship grows, you have the hopeful expectation that what you will find in the coming years is that person is a true love - a true friend. I've also come to realize that finding this type of relationship - a relationship with someone who knows the real you and loves you anyway - is very rare. I guess I always knew this to be true but, having everything to do with my age, this realization has become 'slap-me-in-my-face' clear over the past year.

Throughout my life I have continued to gain more and more friendships...through high school, through college, through my career...and I feel as though I've come to the point where I've stopped (or gradually slowed down) gaining friends and have come to a stage of putting those friendships I've gained throughout my years to the test. The test of true friendship. There's nothing that I've consciously done to test these friendships, but that the course of time has tested these friendships. And more and more friendships that I thought would stand the test of time...well...haven't. I guess it's the bitter truth of life and something I would eventually have to come to terms with - people change and drift apart. I understand that not everyone's 'life paths' end up going in the same direction, but it doesn't lessen the blow of realizing that someone who you thought was such a great friend all this time really isn't...and someone who you thought you knew the best, you really don't know at all.

But the upside to this phase of my life is that I am realizing and cherishing those friendships who have stood the test of times - the times of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Confirming what you always knew to be true in your heart - finding that soulmates can come in all forms, including girlfriends. So I dedicate this post to my girls...my soulmates. You know who you are and I love you more than you'll ever know. Cheers!