Unchain Your Mind | I'll Keep My Shoes On...Thank You

I foresee some upset people if they ever read this post. But it is what it is.

I recently posted a broad, yet slightly lengthy, status on Facebook about my experience and view on friends and friendship.

Bottom line: Everybody is not meant to be your friend for a lifetime!!

People define friendship differently, so I’m not knocking them. Out of my entire toddler and adolescent years, I have only remained in constant contact with one person. We’re not best friends, we don’t talk every day, and I probably can’t even tell you the latest current events in her life. But when we pick up the phone and chat, it’s like nothing ever happened. We catch each other up, laugh at our old inside jokes, reminisce, and enjoy conversation. This is basically how it goes with the six people that I consider true friends.

While I was in high school, I hung out with the same ten girls. We had a “clique” (even though we hated that term) name and everything. They were my friends…in high school. We still communicate from time to time, but they knew the teenage me, not the adult me. I’ve grown, matured, experienced some things that they haven’t and may never have to experience, and probably developed a completely different lifestyle than what they may be used to. Who knows... My love for them hasn’t changed, but I can’t call them my friend because they don’t know me.

I would honestly risk my life for each and every one of my friends and not think twice about it because I feel like they would do the same for me. They’ve either seen me grow into the adult that I am (and lived through it with me because I’m sure I blew up their phone!), or met me after I accepted me for who I finally found myself to be and still loved me.  Don’t get it twisted, I didn’t find myself to be anything ungodly or outrageous. Life’s situations just have a way of maturing you differently, and sometimes faster, than others.

Just because you were a friend for a moment, doesn’t make you a friend forever. I outgrow people very quickly. Without judging them, I see that we just aren’t on the same page in life and I don’t feel like putting on a different hat just to talk to you everytime because I’m afraid of what you might think of me if a curse word slips out or I tell you that my best friend is gay. I don’t need someone to tell me that my love life is moving too fast, non-existent, or in need of a little spice. I love you, but I gotta love you from a distance because I can’t let the foolery and childishness get to me.

So with that being said, some people will find themselves just like they assume my love life is…non-existent. You won’t understand my life until you walk a day in my shoes. And I don’t plan on taking them off to prove anything to you.