Ode to Friendship

Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without friends.

Back in elementary school, I basically lived a life of solitude. I didn’t smell or anything, but apparently I sucked. I never had friends in elementary school. Even in junior high, it was hard. I got lucky with my first boyfriend (who threatened to kill me in college, but I digress). I joined clubs and teams, but it made very little difference. I was just the one to avoid. Their reason? I’m fat and ugly. No wonder I have a distorted self-image. Hah.

I think I didn’t meet my real friends until high school. Especially my best friend. It’s funny how we met. We were in the same biology class in freshman year, and we would poke fun at the teacher, and I would just stay there writing stories and one day, I told her to read one of them. She…loved it. My confidence slowly came back. She would tell me to write more, and when I did, I’d show it to her. We were inseparable ever since. Even at graduation, we made sure we got a seat next to each other. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. But ever since we graduated high school, our schedules clash and we haven’t seen each other since 2004.

Even in college, I had two girls who stuck by me. I remember when I would oversleep for my first class (which was, ironically, math–since I hate it and I passed it with a B+) and they would come up to my dorm and pick me up for English, and we go to get some food first. They even stood by me when my asshole roommate (who was also a friend) betrayed me over a guy (just so you know the male population issue has been ongoing, ha). Great women who live too far away. But thank goodness for Myspace.

Now, I have a circle of friends who I hang out with every day. We’re known as the “Rat Pack” (not to be confused with the real Rat Pack obviously), but I come up with Dysfunctional Spades Players because that’s all we basically do–play Spades and eat snacks. The circle consists of 6 of us including myself, and the afternoon sessions are full of laughs, and we usually go home with a crapload of crap in our stomachs, but it’s so much fun. These are a great circle I have–I’ve known them for maybe a year, but we’re so comfortable with each other, that we can disclose certain things that we normally wouldn’t tell anyone else.

So here is my ode to friendship. I don’t understand hermits–how do they voluntarily live a solitary life? I can safely say that I would die without the perks of friendship.

Note: Notice that I left him out of it. He needed to be left out of it until this turns into a bitter entry.