To The Friends Who Love Me For Who I Am

As I grew older and hit my 20s, I grew to realize my circle of friends became smaller. It surprised me how difficult was it to find real friends who chose to stay through all ups and downs. In my dictionary, friends are defined as people whom you can talk to about any random thing and be stupid with but they will be there for you when you are going through heaven and hell times. Everyone else who doesn’t fit into this category is just an acquaintance — otherwise known as the people you know by their name, face or hang out with once in a while. Friendship takes effort and time to sustain and friendship fallouts happen when people don’t make time for each other or don’t see the need to.

As I grow, I realize priorities in life change. Just like how our current shoe size may not be similar to the one we had years ago, our circle of friends continues to change. We continue to meet many people in life as we enter different stages of life. There will be someone we are going to fall for, some people we are going to dislike simply because we can’t connect, and there will be some people we hate for absolutely no reason at all.

As I grow, I realize walking away from people is absolutely normal and you should be able to accept people walking away from you.

You won’t be able to hold everyone’s hands as you move forward, simply because it’s heavy and it’s a chore. Whether you like it or not, at one point, you will have to cut some extra weight to feel a little lighter and be more at peace. It is alright to cut people out of your life at any time if you feel the toxicity radiating from them and affecting you. You have to know that doing this does not make you a villain.

I grew up with many different circles of friends. I have found those that I want to keep in my life until the end of time. I am now surrounded by a tribe who gets me, accepts me, and loves me for who I truly am. I never ever felt insecure or ever felt the fear of showing who I truly am. Every single time I am with them, I don’t have to wear a mask to feel validated. The day that I thought I was helpless, hopeless, and had no one to turn into and rely on, my friends swiftly came in my world to support me without expecting to get anything from it. And that was the exact moment I knew who were the people worth keeping in my circle.

To my friends who love me despite my sassiness, thank you. It feels heartwarming to be celebrated for the person that I am. I have never ever felt the need to change myself to fit into the circle so thank you. Thank you for accepting my flaws and being blunt with me. Thank you to all my real friends who had grown up with me and shaped me into whom I am today. Thank you for all the memories which we had. Thank you for slapping me with the hardest truth at certain points of time in life that killing myself to work hard does not guarantee me success when things are beyond my control. Thank you all for being you.

And without all of you true friends in my life, maybe I wouldn’t be this happy. Maybe I wouldn’t be bold enough to be who I truly am. Maybe I would have been hiding behind a mask. Maybe I won’t be brave enough to be wild at heart. And that’s something to be truly, genuinely thankful for.