Friends.....

Feeling a little sappy here but I wanted to share how much the new friendships I have made recently as well as the ones that have grown over the past couple of years mean to me. First of all, I have never really been one of those people that has to have a ton of friends. I like being tight with one or two people and that's it. It's not that I would mind having more friends, just that I guess I'm not good about making time for other people that are not in my immediate family. When I joined the church, I had about 5 or 6 friends that I would call regularly and hang out with etc. but when they found out I was joining the LDS church, they all pretty much abandoned me. I guess they thought that because I was becoming LDS that I was no longer going to be the same fun Cory that I always was. Sure, I wasn't going to be going out partying and drinking and doing dumb stuff anymore, but I could still be fun without those things. I guess they didn't realize that and slowly separated themselves from me. I'll be honest... it hurt. Even though I knew I was making the right choice when I joined the church, losing those friends was a little upsetting. I even got comments from a couple of them that I had "gone off the deep end" or " I was crazy". I guess those "friends" weren't really my friends at all. I think that for a long time, I was very cautious of who I let in as far as a friend. I would often see my husband have awesome friendships with his buddies and I really missed that I did not have that and was jealous. My mom and sister became my best friends. They became the girls I went out with and had girl time with. And even though I can tell them just about anything and I have a great time with them, I still felt like I was missing some of those friendships that I had once had. You know, girls you can call up and chat with, be silly with or call and vent to when you're having a rough day and they won't judge you or think you're a bad person because you're in a stinky mood. Since becoming a member of the LDS church, I have been blessed with really awesome relatives. Some of which I can say have become my best friends. I don't need to mention names, you know who you are. I can call you up and give you exciting news and you will be excited with me or I can call you up and vent and tell you exactly how I feel about a certain situation and you can sympathize and won't hold it against me if I say something that is inappropriate or mean because you know that I am just venting and not really a "bad" person. Or... I can text you 500 times a day :) with all my random ramblings and you will just laugh at me. Then there are the actual friendships (not family) that I have made over the last few years that are constantly being strengthened and growing. Those have become really fun. My BFF and I met in a weird way. We worked together and she hated me because I yelled at her once. We were basically "forced" to hang out together from a mutual friend who told us that we would like each other. I believe his words to her about me were something like "No really, she's cool. You will like her" to which my bff went "I don't think so!" We ended up loving each other and having such a quick bond. I never thought I could feel like that about a friend again. It was like we had known each other our whole lives. I remember the day she had to tell me she was moving out of state. We had only been friends for a short period of time. We were in the drive through during our lunch break at Carl's Jr. and she said she was going to move. Up til this point, we hadn't really said how we felt about each other we just knew that we enjoyed spending time with each other and being silly. We both broke down and started crying in the Carl's Jr drive through and "professed" (LOL) our love for each other. Looking back on that, I wish I could have it on video so that I could see what a couple of emotional dorks we were. But both of us had not felt that awesome friendship before and that instant bond so when she was moving out of state and we weren't going to see each other every day any more, we both became really sad. But it's been about 6 years and we still are going strong. We call and vent and we call and laugh and we email, etc. Our friendship has lasted and grown and I am thankful for that. We do not get to see each other as often as we would like, but I know I can pick up the phone and cry to her, vent to her, laugh to her and everything is always perfect. We constantly make each other laugh with our crazy antics.
What I'm trying to get at here... is that for about four years after I joined the church, I really didn't have any friends and now that I have so many people that I am close with and thankful for I realize what I was missing. So thanks for being my friend and putting up with me and thanks to all the "newer" friends that I have been making in my ward. It's been great getting to know everyone and build stronger relationships. I think (okay i know) that I can be a very intimidating person to get to know so thanks to all my friends for giving me a chance and letting our friendships grow.