Making new friends is such an interesting process. The intricacies of conversation, laughter, story-telling. It’s all so new and refreshing and… exciting. I am SO PUMPED about the new relationships developing in my life. And so grateful to God for having put them in my path and learning about how they function in my community.
I have two of the absolute BEST best friends in the world- they each appeal to different needs of my personality. Jia is my go-to emotional needs friend. Any time I feel uncertain about things or need some good solid advice from an honest source… she’s the girl. I wouldn’t trade any of that friendship for anything. Examining her place in my life is just as (if not more) interesting as making new friends. I love seeing the way that God uses the relationship that I have with her to teach me something about myself almost every day.
And then there’s Jay. We’ve been friend for about three years now, and some of the most fun things I’ve ever done have been with Jay. In fact, my top three favorite fun-times memories have Jay in them. He’s always up for an adventure and has the same “Let’s make the best of a bad situation” attitude when things go wrong (which happens more often than not).
For instance, two winters ago we went to see the Ice! exhibit at Opryland. If you’ve never heard of it, basically they select a theme each year (That year it was ‘A Very Charlie Brown Christmas’) and build gigantic ice sculptures in this big warehouse and you put on these huge puffy blue coats and walk through the exhibit. They even have giant slides made of ice for kids! Jay and I bought tickets and were planning to leave Franklin around 5:45 to get there by 6:30 and eat in the Opry Mills mall and walk through the exhibit. We bought tickets early, asked off for work, and even made a mixed CD in preparation for the excursion. So we leave on time and get to Briley Parkway on schedule… and then Leona Lewis’ “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” comes on and we actually get SO wrapped up in her voice that we wait in a two-mile line of cars for Exit 11, when we actually needed to be at Exit 12! By the time we got to the exhibit, the mall was closing in 45 minutes and we had to rush through dinner to see Charlie Brown and Snoopy before IT closed… all because our enthusiasm and similar voice obsessions literally take up half our conversations. But we made it all work, and had a blast that night.
Jay is the only friend I can call and talk about Jessica Simpson’s bizarre singing voice with for at least half an hour. He will sit through a 6-minute Celine Dion ballad and analyze every single note with me, listening again and again and again to truly appreciate her talent. He can also find something humorous in every single situation, and can almost always make me laugh when I’m feeling miserable at work. Despite our distinct differences, I value my relationship with him in an entirely different way than anyone else in my life. He challenges me to back up my beliefs and even though this has been the source of a lot of growing pain for the both of us, it is ultimately a huge part of the reason that I am where I am today.
So Jay, if you’re reading this- Thank you for being authentic with me. Thank you for asking me the hard questions and not being afraid to push the boundaries. Thank you for listening to me, even when I don’t think that you’re paying attention. Thanks for the midnight winter walks and the summer pool days, for letting me teach you to cook and clean, and for the endless supply of opinions and music. I wouldn’t be the same person without you in my life.
You’re a good Jay.
