There are many things that I hope and wish for Autumn as she grows, from little things like hoping she doesn't inherit my awful teeth (they required two, yes two, sets of braces) to bigger more general things like hoping that she is happy and content in everything that she does. One of the bigger, well I consider it to be bigger, things that I wish for my daughter to have in her life is the invaluable gift of friendship.
Family is a blessing, there is no denying that, but there are times in life, many times actually, when it is nice to have an unbiased ear listening. It is those times when I lean on my friends. Now, you may be thinking, well if they are your friends, then they are going to have some bias. Nope, not my friends. These girls are quick to tell me when I am being irrational or overly-sensitive. They give me their honest opinions whenever I ask, and even when I don't. They don't sugar-coat things for my benefit, or tell me what they think I want to hear. They would immediately point out that I have something in my teeth, while laughing. I absolutely love them!
It is honest relationships like these that are a requirement in life.
These same girls would bend over backwards to help me if I needed it, no questions asked. They would walk (or, in our case, most likely dance) through fire with me. This I know from experience. They know me, the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly.
If you had told me, when I was a freshman in high school, that the girl who got thrown out of Mr. Mercer's Drama class with me would one day live a street away, I wouldn't have believed you. That the same girl would ask me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and be sitting patiently in the waiting room while I delivered my first child, I would have laughed. Thankfully, that is exactly the way it turned out.
I can only hope that being surrounded by the friendships that I have made will be an example for Autumn. Hopefully one day, she will walk out of a restaurant with food stuck in her teeth and turn to find her best-friend laughing and pointing.
