For my friend

It’s been a hard day.
Okay, it’s been a rough week.
No, actually it’s been a tough month.
Ah, screw it this just hasn’t been my year.

Dear Friend,

I know. I know it’s been hard. My lack of positivity, my negative mindset, the complaining, the crying, the silence, the stress… the list goes on. It goes without saying that I haven’t had the best year. It hasn’t been one specific thing, just a million little things that have happened & these million little things have seemingly turned me into a person I don’t necessarily enjoy. But, through it all… you’re still here and I don’t even know how to say how thankful I am for that. When things get tough, a lot of people tend to run as fast as possible. But not you.

You’re the friend who knows exactly what to say, or not to say, without me having to ask.
You’re the friend who has attempted to cheer me up more times than I could ever count.
You’re the friend that has basically done anything to help me get out of the house and out of my mind.
You’re the one that’s listened to the same story, over and over and over again.
You’re the one who has offered advice, knowing pretty darn well that I’m not going to take it.
You’re also the friend who has never said “I told you so” when I didn’t follow above mentioned advice.
You’re the one who has let me come sleep in your bed because I couldn’t stand another night alone.

You sit with me, you laugh with me, you cry with me, you empathize with me, you pick me up when I feel like my world is crashing, you remind me that this is only a phase …. But most of all, you’ve stuck with me during the worst seasons of my life and I couldn’t love you more for it.

You’re the reason that I have the tiniest bit of hope that this season of life will turn around.
You’re the reason that I haven’t packed all of my belongings and disappeared across the country.
You’re the reason that I’m able to stand on my own two feet sometimes.

It takes a strong person to stick by someone who feels so broken, someone who feels so worthless, someone who feels like they keep taking hit after hit after hit. You’ve never left my side, no matter how low things got.

The lower I got, the more you loved.
The more negativity I portrayed, the more positivity you radiated.
The more tears I cried, the more you tried to make me laugh.

You will never regret being a good friend to someone who is going through a rough time. Standing next to someone in the midst of a storm (that may feel never ending) and just holding their hand, giving them reassurance that it’s going to be okay… yeah, that is something not many people know how to do, but you do. I know it’s exhausting. You’re exhausted, I’m exhausted & we both know that my problems could be much worse. But you never say that, you just love me for who I am. Whether the me that you’re loving is the happy version or the broken version – you just love me.

Thank you for not giving up on me. You stuck by my side when others decided that it was too much to handle, because you know that this is temporary. You know me, you know that I will bounce back & when I do – I cannot wait to celebrate you and shower you with the love you’ve shown me. Thankful is not the correct word to describe you, dear friend, you deserve a word that means so much more. Because as I finally see the horizon and the storm passing, I can truly say that I would have never made it through this season of life without you.

So thank you, thank you for sticking around.