2010

2010 has been an amazing and difficult year at the same time.  On the positive end... I have finished my required schooling for my 4 year History degree, I traveled to New York and Dublin, Ireland... two of the places I have always wanted to visit, and I spent some amazing time with my closest friends.  There were some hard patches, but nothing that couldn't be overcome and in the end, it was an amazing year, one of the best ever thanks to people like my wonderful husband Adam, without whom I don't know what I'd do.

I think I also learned a great deal about the nature of friendship.  Like many, for a long time I equated the success of friendship with the number of friends one had.  It seemed customary to belong to groups, be accepted and liked by a number of people...when, in the end I learned that groups are not what is important... its the loyalty and devotion of the friends you have that matters.  I may be able to count on one hand the number of true friends that I have... but in the end, I discovered this year that it is much more important that those few actually care about you, than have an enormous group of casual onlookers who in the end...won't be there.

The true friends are those who have seen you at your best and your very worst and still adore you for all of those things...
I may not have a gaggle of friends... but I have a handful of dear people near to me who would cut off their right arm if they thought it would help me and they mean more than anything to me because of it.

So,  in closing... this year has been one of great discovery.  I learned through isolation that I am lucky to have that handful and a loving family to go along with it.  We struggle so long trying to figure out who we are, or to become comfortable in our own skin... and then we fight tooth and nail to be accepted by a group, to feel like all that work we did panned out and honestly... its only those who love us for our successes and failings that count.

What is my wish for 2011... that those I love also find that out as well.

"Friendship is never established as an understood relation. It is a miracle which requires constant proofs. It is an exercise of the purest imagination and of the rarest faith."
-Thoreau