...short girls...

"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends." ~ It's a Wonderful Life

 

They are the people who lift you up. They are the people who call you out when needed. They are the people who stand by you through thick and thin. Friends. Whether you have known them all of your life, or only for a blip of where you currently reside, friends are the family that requires no bloodline. Friends are the people that you are blessed to have in your life. Friends are the ones who make sure you are okay after peeing your pants.

I am blessed. Every morning when I wake up, no matter how sleep deprived or crummy I feel, I sit up in bed and think, I am blessed. The silver lining of what I have been through is friendship, some were reaffirmed while others popped up wonderfully unexpected. While life sometimes hands you things you would rather not touch, there are these people that stand by you and help you through. I am blessed to have the friends that I do. More locally, I am blessed with these particular two women, who without which, I would be miserable. My life is fuller, my sanity is intact and my heart wells for these two women, my short girls...it is not a slight, we're all just short.

When you have kids, you can only hope for them. You hope they succeed. You hope they make good choices. You hope they have caring friends. Boys will be boys, but I worry about Nora when I think of friendships. Will she meet people who can see how unique she is? Will she make a friendship that makes her a better person, instead of try to conform her? Nora is an old soul, which is the best way to describe her. She doesn't have to be a leader, nor does she have to follow. She's not big on standing out, but also doesn't feel the need to conform. This makes finding a friend circle difficult. She talks about the boys she plays with at school, but never the girls. She has confidence in herself so maybe worrying doesn't really matter. Then last week something happened that struck my friendship heartstrings...

Picking her up from school, I noticed that she was wearing different pants. Oh my, I thought to myself, that cannot be good. My mind raced trying to remember if I had ever wet my pants at school...nope. Once in the house, I asked her what had happened, and she said she just couldn't wait the five minutes the substitute teacher asked of her. Five minutes? I couldn't wait that long if I had to go! I ushered her to my room to take a shower. I asked her if she had gotten upset, to which she quickly changed the subject to how much she loved the dry pants they gave her to wear...okay?

My phone notified me of a message. It was from my friend, one of the short girls, saying that her son was very worried about Nora and was checking to see if she was okay after being upset at school. Wow. My eyes almost welled up as let Nora know that her friend wanted to know if she was okay. The look on her face was priceless...in that moment I knew, I didn't have to worry (at least for now) about the friends she had at school. She clearly is making good choices.

Why am I writing this? You only have this one life, and if you aren't filling it with people that will check on you after peeing your pants...well, then you aren't living it to the fullest. Here is to the people I'm blessed to call a friend, a sister and undoubtedly a short girl...you make my life better, and I just wanted to thank you.