To my girlfriends,
We are growing up, as much as we might not act or like to admit this. It’s happening. Some of us have done this gracefully, some had a harder time. Let’s be honest, we’ve all had a tough few years.
It is not easy growing up, moving away, losing people, or just life in general- and if I haven’t said it before, thank you for doing life with me.
We have been through some times. The “awkward middle school” age, I would personally like to forget these ones. The “finding ourselves in high school” era, but weren’t they so much fun. And of course the “somehow survived being forced into the real world college” time, didn’t think we would make it through this one alive-congrats girls.
And now here we are. In our “20-somethings”. This is the age I feel like we have been talking about for years. The time we said we’ll save our money, tone our arms, meet the man of our dreams–wake up and know exactly what we want & easily achieve it.
But here we are, and we aren’t much closer to much of that. Who knew?!
Ladies, we are growing up. In fact, we already have. We are adults. We have moved different places, met new people, expanded our careers and experiences-and these are all good things. We are learning more about where we want to go, who we want to be and more about ourselves and each other. We have made it together through some of our toughest times. We have had hearts break, broken some hearts ourselves, had plenty of fears, doubts and dreams crushed. And we have had each other to lean on, seek support from, to argue with, and call when those nights were all just too lonely.
Some friends all come from different backgrounds, all have different stories & pasts to share with each other -but not us. From my most important years, my stories involve you guys, I share my past with you, and we have come from similar places.
And this is what scares me. Now, in our “20-somethings”, this is when our stories change. When we make new futures, new beginnings, and have new backgrounds over time.
I will say this again, thank you sweet friends for doing life with me.
Some of us already live states away, some are planning on doing just the same, and me-I will be around the world in just 5 short months. But no matter where we are going, there will be more than a few perfect moments we will share together in the future. It may not be as often, or as long, but they will forever be ahead. No matter how bad our pasts were, or what our future holds, I will still have a group of girls laughing, eating white trash dip on my living room floor, and talking about absolutely nothing but of what we only understand.
I thank God for my girlfriends. I listened to their problems and they listened to mine. We cried about leaving each other, but have talked in a group text every.single.day for years. Because of these friends, I will forever have a family when I am away from home.
And as heartbroken as I am to leave you guys, once my journey ends, I will have amazing people to come back to and share more experiences with. We’ll have weddings to look forward to, and the occasional staying out too late even though we might be too old. There will be laughs to be had, secrets to share, and bugs in a rugs sleepovers during an infamous girls night.
Thank you my sweetest friends for supporting me on my adventure. For allowing me to follow my faith with the promise you will be there when I come back.
In return, I dare each of you to be bold this next year. You guys are an incredible group of women-yes women. You each amaze me every day with your accomplishments, celebration of life & heart. I am so excited to see where each of you go, and truly honored I will be a part of that.
This next year is to us. We will be in different places, time zones, and maybe even stages of life but it will always be the same between us friends.
Love, AK
