I Love You...

To Whom It May Concern:

It’s obvious who your real friends are.  They’re the ones who you don’t get to talk to, but who still manage to say that they’re there for you.  They’re the ones who have always been around, but who you never reached out to.  They’re the ones who you don’t have to be around to know they will always be your shoulder to cry on.  You don’t need to make plans with them to feel like you will one day find yourselves together.  They’re the ones who can order you around and who listen to you; the ones who you stay up until three in the morning until everything is blurry and you’re both hysterical; the ones who tell you they love you and mean it.  They’re the ones who you meet without meaning to and don’t have to work to keep.

True friends aren’t always friends to begin with.  You may avoid them at first.  You may think “oh goodness, I’m going to hate this person” at first.  Then after you get to know them, you realize that it was just fear of being disliked that made you dislike them.  True friends know when you’re upset without you having to put too much stress on it. They don’t go behind your back and complain about your life to others without bothering to even talk about it to you at all.  These are the people who can cheer you up with a simple hello, who you give odd names to and who sometimes return it.  They are very special people who can always bring a smile to your face no matter how hard you’ve been crying or want to kill someone.

Best friends will be the ones who you lose touch with and then don’t have to try to bring the friendship back.  They’re the ones who you buy those gifts for that have some stupid, crazy inside joke behind them.  Best friend judge you in the harshest ways and push you to do your best with stories and reminders that there is still a past and a future to remember and look forward to.  You look at your best friend and instantly think of countless times they’ve been there.  Real, true, best friends are the ones who can come up and sit on you, can mess with you, and can make fun of you without you caring because you know nothing they do will make you hate them.

My best friends are exactly that: the best.  They know who they are.  My best friends are the ones who I can think about and instantly smile.  They come over and force me to face my fears and text me to have me join them and their friends at random the day before something they’ve planned.  I know who most of them are, too.  They have all proven that they care for me.  I don’t call them my friends, though.  I am right when I say my friends have left me.  The friends who have not proven that they are exactly what I need to be around have almost all disappeared.  I may have a few of them left, but most are gone.  Those who I can consider my true friends are more than that.  They are my brothers and sisters, my twins and triplets.

Many of my new brothers and sisters I have known for a while.  I have gotten to know them so much better over the past few months.  There are also a great number of these closest friends that I have only just know spoken to.  I can honestly say that between summer school, band camp, and being in band alone I have made more than enough new family members.  I don’t always understand them, but I have enough empathy to cry when I feel their pain and sadness and to join in with their laughter when I sense they are being humorous.  Some of these people do not know they are so close to my heart – all of whom I will love forever.