friendship is beautiful

even when it's harder to accomplish

Making friends as a child was so much easier. Sure, I may have been on the shy side, but for the most part, it was easy.

We all have that one friend we met on vacation, who we never saw again, but for a brief time, we were inseparable. All it took was building a sandcastle or a game played in the hotel pool, and boom, friendship.

Friendship in college was also easy. All I had to do was talk to people enough times in class, or simply leave my dorm room and go up the hallway, and boom, friendship.

But friendship as an independent young professional working in an industry that society loves to blame for everything wrong with the culture? So much harder.

It took me months to work up the courage to strike up a conversation beyond asking questions about things that were completely new to me. Months to finally say yes when I was invited to someone’s apartment for a birthday party, or when the girls wanted to blow off the steam of a stressful news week at their favorite cocktail spot.

But when I did, it was just like I was a kid on the beach again, letting some random kid help me build my sandcastle because such activities are more fun when done with others.

My friends are my world now, and I am happiest with them. I forget everything wrong in my life and am focused on the lives in front of me. I worried that I wouldn’t find people who shared my beliefs or anything close to the worldview I hold. I used to think that was what mattered, but the beautiful thing about my friendships now is that not all of us are on the same page about every little thing.

That’s what makes being with them such a good time. I didn’t realize how much I had missed deep, thoughtful conversations about differences without being made to feel inferior. My friends know how to love people, no matter how differently we were raised, no matter who we vote for, no matter our orientation or race.

And most importantly, the joy of the Lord is what brings us all together. We spend so much time telling each other the small blessings that we encounter, even when our job is to share the brokenness of humanity 90% of the time. We hold one another accountable to pursue truth, not just for the sake of our jobs, but also because we know that iron sharpens iron.

These friendships were harder won, but I would not trade them for anything. It almost makes the last few months of heartache feel worth it. God has a reason for guiding me to still be here, and maybe this is part of it.

If this is the love I was meant to pursue here, then I am all the better for it.