Alida

“Nearly everything I know about love, I’ve learned from my long-term friendships with women.”
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

I was talking with one of my best friends on the phone recently, just getting into all sorts of conversation, and eventually he said, “You know, I truly believe that the most precious thing in life is my friendships and relationships I have built with people,” and then I sat there thinking about it, and I couldn’t do anything else but absolutely agree. 

I simply would not be the person I am today, or be where I am, without the people closest to me. My life has become so much more infinitely rich because of my friends. They are my foundation and my backbone. When I was stressed, or my heart was broken, or I was in between decisions, or doubting myself, they were there to keep my head up. To give me advice, give me a laugh, sit with me in my grief. Not because they owe me anything, but simply because they are my friend. And I have done the same for them. An unwritten code, an unwritten contract of love and loyalty. 

We learn things from our friends, are inspired by them, and by their differences from our own. We pick things up. And we become a little museum of all the people we have had the privilege of knowing. 

And I do believe that friendship is so deeply underrated. We have such an obsession with finding this all-encompassing, true, and pure romantic love that trumps everything, and then completely forget the purest love of all, the love of our friends. 

A good friend is a beautiful light at the end of a dark tunnel. 

A love that doesn’t demand or beg. It’s a soft hug after a long day. A nice glass of wine and a blanket. A belly laugh. 

There have been so many times when I have felt a heaviness in life, but then I spend a few hours with my friends and then feel as if that heavy veil has been lifted off of me by them. 

Friends make the world less lonely, less harsh, less cold. Friendship asks for almost nothing, yet leaves an impact on almost every part of your life. 

I am grateful for my friends, each and every single one of them. All so different and all so them. They have taught me things, made me a better person, and, honestly, taught me to love even more deeply. They have taught me that, at the end of the day, sometimes you just need a good laugh, sometimes just a good cry, and sometimes both, and they will sit with me through it all. Rich is the man who has a true friend. 

(go tell your friends you love them!!)