A friend is a pretty strange concept — it’s just another human being that you hang out with and do life things with. It’s even stranger when you think of the ones you interact with frequently. The ones you get breakfast with on a Sunday morning. The ones you ask for advice on which outfit to wear. The ones you send ridiculous memes to, laughing while geographically apart but continuously connected.

But the friends we label our “best” and the ones we find we truly care for, these are the friendships that can change lives. They impact you more than you can imagine.

Because in a unique way, friendship is love, and love, as we know, is messy.

So here’s to the friends who love us when we are at a low.

Life isn’t always easy, and after a period of time, we can find ourselves in a downward spiral, instantly feeling lost. Yet these friends will notice. They will give you tough love and ask you how they can help — probably too many times. They will give it to you straight and tell you to cut your bullshit, because they just want to bring you back up. They will do their best to accept you at your low and help build you higher and stronger than before.

Here’s to the friends who love us when we’re acting absolutely terrible.

We’ve all been absolutely terrible for numerous reasons. Maybe something upsetting happened at work, or with a stranger in public, or we’ve simply a bad week, but we have all accidentally taken out our anger on our friends. Unintentionally, it still has a negative effect. It still hurts. It still sucks to be on the receiving end of terrible behavior. But they love us anyways.

Because they recognize you are not always going to be in this frozen state that only holds one expression. 

You are human. You get aggravated, you get mad, you get pissed off, and the friends that love you will tolerate and accept your rougher edges.

Here’s to the friends that love us through a loss.

There are few things in life that have such power over every ounce of our emotion and being. One of those instances is loss. Maybe it was a relationship, maybe it was a job, maybe it was a loved one’s life, but that’s when we stand the most human, weak, and vulnerable, needing the support of our friends.

You see, the friends who love you will be there for you. Maybe not in your perfect start-to-finish, holding your tissues kind of way, but they will be there for you. Recognize these people. Do not expect it from them, but when they do reach out, comfort you, or simply listen, I hope you can find peace in this kind of love.

Here’s to the friends that love us even when we’re the worst.

Because as much as I am growing and evolving, I will continue to be the worst. I will continue to need help and guidance from my close ones from time to time. I will continue to have absolutely no clue what the crap I am doing one a minute until I am redirected back on path. I will continue to break down and rebuild again.

So here’s to you, friends.