Friendship

Recently my best friend left me for almost three weeks. "How dare she!" you say? I concur. Strongly. I arrived here in Houston a naive and lonely 17 year old girl. I was nervous to go places and meet people and vastly becoming disillusioned to the girls I had begun associating with. Needless to say, those people left, but they left me feeling smaller than I had started out and worse than that, they left me...alone. Granted I did have Shane's fantastic company, but he was not the shopping partner I longed for. He was not the sympathetic ear to my more delicate issues. No, no, I needed a girl; I needed a friend. Shane joined with me and we began to pray for a friend. My prayers were not answered right away, but the way in which they were answered is quite memorable indeed. Choir practice is where it all went down. Janice!! She was young, outspoken, and a very....let's just say "hands on" kind of person. I would leave practice complaining about the curly haired girl who wouldn't stop touching me, till Shane snapped and said, "Her name is Janice, Rachael! Learn it! And you say you want a friend, well she might just be it..." Yes, the ellipsis was an implied one; as i knew he meant to finish with "if you would stop complaining and start receiving." Talk about a nice, Hardy, smack in the face. After that I approached choir practice with a new nervousness. Would this girl want to be my friend? The answer was yes! Now several years into our friendship, I cannot imagine my life without her. She is beautiful, oh yes, no doubt. But, it is her openness and her adventureness that I find myself admiring most. Janice has no fear. She attacks each day with gusto. She is constantly forcing me to reach beyond myself and my anxiety and afterwards I am thrilled with my accomplishments. She is fiercely loyal and that is so obvious once you meet her because she hides nothing. Janice will be graduating this December and I am keenly aware that my own small graduation was largely in part to our friendship. I am so very thankful to God for giving me someone like Janice. I am so very thankful to have her returned favor as well. Before I sign off I would also like to say a heartfelt (and filled with love) thank you to Jean and Tammy for their friendship as well. I would say that ya'll are my surrogate mothers and most certainly my friends! I treasure you all.