For every friend I have, there is a different kind of friendship. All of these have developed for different reasons. None of these friends are worth more or less in life because at some point they will be the friend you need the most. Your best friend that has known you so long that they just understand you to the core, the friend that you had to work for that you may appreciate more for that very reason, the friend who can always be counted on for advice in tough situations or a shoulder to cry on when you need it, and the friend that appeared one day, the one that you can talk to about anything until you've worked all your problems out.

We all have the best friend, the one who loves you unconditionally; who never thinks less of you, and who you can go a year without really seeing each other and not skip a beat when getting back together. Mine is sixty miles away, teaching math at our local high school. We’ve been best friends since we were in the 1st grade and I invited her to an imaginary slumber party that I made up. Oops. I haven't seen her since July but next time that I do, it will feel like I just saw her the day before.

Then there is that friend that you kind of have to work at making the friendship. You have to allot time to spend together, get lunch, go shopping and other things so that you learn to hang out. Nothing wrong at all with this, sometimes you just can’t see how amazing a person is from that first impression and you have to look a little deeper. I think this is how a lot of college friendships are because you meet in class and get to know people in that way and then maybe you start grabbing lunch and doing other things and you discover this whole other aspect of them when you are both outside of academia. This friend is probably appreciated most, because of the effort invested in planting the seed of friendship, but also this is the friend that can be lost the easiest. It just takes the end of the semester or the skipping of a few lunches and there is always the possibility that it will disappear.

Of course there is always the friend that you bond with over tough situations. That advice offering friend who never thinks less of you either, no matter what stupid shit you’ve gotten yourself into this time. Sometimes you have to work on that friendship too, so that you can still be friends when there isn’t any drama to discuss. But when you’ve seen someone through a tough time or two, you’ve generally got them for life or at least a long time.

But lastly, there are just those immediate friendships. You meet someone randomly and start talking. The talking never stops, there is never that awkward silence where you are struggling for the next topic to discuss. You feel like you can confess your secrets or your dreams without judgment. I’ve met a select few people that could simply amaze me with all the things they had to say and sadly I don’t get to talk to them much anymore because of some changes in our lives. I really treasure someone that can have so much to say and be so willing to put it out there and share it.

I am really sad that my computer crashed a month ago and I lost a phrase I wrote once. Here is the best that I can remember, just the first part of it. This was not directed towards anyone at that time, and isn’t now, it’s just the truth. “I want to fall in love with someone that I can stay up all night talking to”. It is so important to have that ability to communicate and the connection that allows you to never run out of things to say. That connection is always one that amazes me because I'm not always the best conversationalist and I appreciate it when it occurs. It reminds me of a discussion I had once on whether it is better to fall in love with your best friend or become best friends with the one you fall in love with. Whichever happens, it still shows that there needs to be a deeper bond than just one of the two.

And now that the sun will be up shortly, I'm going to bed.

I miss home in the summer time

Here's to screened in porches in the spring time. Where you can sit in a swing in the twilight coolness and listen to the rain, the frogs, or even the crickets as you read or lay back and relax. Here's to rocking chairs and sweet tea. To cool leafy forests, ponds, and creeks to fish in. Here's to carving initials on trees by the creek banks and rolling your jeans up to go wading to pick up those pretty smooth stones. Here's to flying kites in cotton fields. Here's to the smell of tobacco curing because that’s so much better than the smoke it ends up as. Here's to winding country roads where you break all sorts of laws to pass 2 tractors and a combine in a curve cuz you've been stuck behind them for 2 miles and you just can't go slow anymore. Here's to riding in the back of a pickup truck with the wind in your hair. Here's to grandmas who really know how to cook. Here's to "Who's your daddy?" being a way to identify people rather than a sexual comment. Here's to exploring woods and old farm buildings. Looking for adventures and having treehouses and forts made from tree branches and playing for hours with your dog. Here's to being a girl and still having your own workbench and set of tools. Here's to climbing trees and spying on the neighbors (even if they are your family too). Here's to planting flowers and trees and knowing all the names for them. There is nothing like sitting on a back porch in the evening and catching the scent of confederate jasmine and gardenias on the breeze. Here's to the sun setting over rolling farmland and another day has passed that you know you'll never forget.