Focus on the Friends - Angela

 

Meet my friend Angela.  Today is her birthday!  Isn't she pretty?  She's smart too. Really smart.  Like make-you-rethink-if-you-know-anything-at-all smart.  I remember the day we met.  I was a RN on the telemetry unit.  She was an RN in the education department, and the ER, and a clinical coordinator.  I told you she was smart.  She came to the nurses station all dressed up and cute in heels and a retro coral skirt.  We introduced ourselves officially, as we had both known of the other - through her stepdaughter.  She then told me how she was going to be applying to NP school, had heard I was applying to NP school, and was wondering if we had similar plans.

Turns out we did.

We both were accepted into the same NP program, the same semester.  What started as a carpool, exploded into an adventurous two years, and built a friendship that remains a highlight of my life.  Oh I forgot to mention.  Not only is she pretty and smart.  She's crazy.  CRAAAAAZY.  Some of my favorite memories include almost dumping her treadmill out the back of her truck; her carrying at least five bags of crap into class each day; telling her I was pregnant; my first pregnancy barf on the rocks outside her house; racing airplanes; racing cars;  being bothered by (certain) lame teachers and classmates;  sitting in class for hours - eating;  spending many nights at her parent's house;  practicing new skills on her mom; my unborn babies having to wear ear-muffs; adding another carpooler and almost losing our lives; a BIG bloated dead cow; lots of procrastination; lots of bagels; lots of shopping; stopping for pies at Rock Springs; drafting a Heart and Vascular CV business plan (yeah they TOTALLY stole our idea); big dreams of serving the underserved and practicing medicine in other countries.

Now we get to be peers, and she is still my go-to for clinical perspective.  Life perspective too.  She's a leader, a visionary, and did I mention smart? 

When we were going through NP school it seemed like an eternity, like it would never end.  I would have NEVER guessed I would look back on that time as one of the greatest seasons of my life.  Not the school part, but the Angela part for sure. 

Focus on the Friends - Introduction

My best friend.

What a power-packed title, huh? I don't know about you, but when I was a little girl there was only ONE.  Anne Loving.  My Miger.  My super-friend.  She embodied every friendship-quality known to girlhood, all wrapped up in a blond, petite, sweetheart.  We were ridiculous, in every wonderful sense of the word.  We had HUGE imaginations - boyfriends, pet rocks, forts, and other worlds.  We were TOMBOYS - dirt, creeks, bikes, and grasshoppers.

I can VIVIDLY remember the day she moved.  After third grade.  We stood outside her pumpkin house with very somber faces.  We cried.  We considered running away.  We went to Cornette and bought paper, pens, and envelopes.  I got on my bike and rode back to my dad's apartment, sobbing.  I thought my life was ending.  And a part of it was.

It's weird looking back, we always promised we would be friends FOREVER.  We would be different. WE would be the kind of friends that would take trips together as little old ladies.  We had quite a bit of foresight for eight-year-olds.  We could identify that most childhood friendships don't last forever, and we wanted to be the one that did. 

Oh we gave it a great go.  We wrote HUNDREDS of pages of letters.  I mean long.  Many.  Typed and handwritten. Snail mail, every one.  We visited each other at least once a year, even through high school.

But we broke our promise.

Somehow it happened.  Life.  College.  Weddings.  Babies.  At least that's how it looked on my end.  Unfortunately I don't really know what life things took precedent on hers. It used to really grieve me that we didn't have what we once did.  I used to feel really guilty.

But I don't anymore.
I love my Miger.
She will always hold that most lofty childhood title
- my best friend. 

I've learned a lot about friendships.  First of all, there will never again be the magical time of childhood.  While Anne met my every friendship need from age 2-20, it gave me a somewhat distorted picture of what adult friendships would look like for me.  I was always looking for that one SUPER FRIEND, because that's all I needed.  I was always looking for that ONE friend who was every friendly attribute tied into a single person.  But when that wasn't to be found, I found myself friendless and lonely.

I don't like friendless or lonely. 

So.  I decided to be neither.  I now have lots of best friends.  I have some friends that I love to work with.  I have some friends that I love to learn with.  I have some friends that are in the trenches of mama-hood with me.  I have some friends that are in the trenches of ministry with me.  I have some friends that are mentors, and have discipled me to love Jesus more.  I have some friends that at the drop of a hat will go shopping or get pedicures.  I have some friends that are like sisters.  I can have entire wordless conversations with some friends.  I think I've laughed with all of them, and cried with most of them.  They have loved me even after I've been a TOTAL IDIOT or hurt them badly.  They are my friends.
 
So today I am introducing a new series on the 'ol blog.  It is going to be a tribute to the great friends in my life.  The list is ever morphing.  Ever growing.  And in no particular order.  :)   

"... a sweet friendship refreshes the soul." ~ Proverbs 27:9