“Friends are a big part of your life,” all the people older than me say. I have had many throughout the years, and found that yes, it’s true. I have always found connecting with other people difficult. There seem to be so many social cues that I crash over, or popular trends that I dazedly nod through. Together, my friends help me learn how social cues are usually difficult to understand. They seem different when comparing person to person, and don’t seem to have a straight set of rules. Experience is the only way to have a grasp on them. My friends are always there to help me to the best of their abilities. Every embarrassing moment that I mourn, every popular trend that I ignore, every vaguely insulting remark that I make, they help me understand the reasons behind other people’s reactions. Even though we drifted apart after a while, their part in my life is what I treasure most. 

Nahalie was one of my first friends. We were both extremely shy and didn’t speak. Her willingness to talk to other people had me in awe. I was constantly afraid of rejection, preventing me from reaching out. With her by my side, I was willing to talk to other people, if only for a moment. Thank you for drawing me out of my shell. 

EmJ’s outgoing personality drew me in like a moth to a light. I am sure that I had many other friends, but she is the one whose face I remember the clearest. She introduced me to many other people. Brushing aside my fears with logic, she helped me make closer connections to other people around me. Her constant reprimands for poor timing with comments or accidental insults helped me understand people’s reactions for most things. She called making friends the “finding the most perfect timing” game. With that, I found making friends much easier. Thank you for giving the best background commentary of my life ever. 

Austen and Ayden were some of the smartest people I had known. Austen was very connected to his emotions. He would stop and analyze every emotion he felt. He was the best at making me laugh and understanding other people’s emotions. He also had every step of his life planned out. Considering we were probably under the age of 10 when we met, I found him admirable. Ayden was better following the logical views of people. He found some things to be completely illogical while others less so. With the help of both, I found a nice tie between logical thought processes and emotional thought processes. Thank you for helping me see reason in emotional events. 

Agnes is one of my current close friends. She teaches me a lot about how people think. She seems to be more eager than any of the rest of my friends to show off her own emotions and beliefs. I find her excitement to follow almost any event in her life with such grace astonishing.  She introduced me to my current friend group. Seeing various personalities clash and connect is amazing. Thank you for continuing to be my friend after my blunder when we first met. 

I am thankful for all of my friends. My current ones and past ones. The ones I mentioned, and the ones I didn’t. Without any of them, I have no idea who I would be today. I am grateful for life giving me experiences with them. Thank you.

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