The Need for Friends

I'm going to get right to the point: I need people. More specifically: I need friends. I need people who will hang out, talk, laugh, and (for lack of a better term) play with me. I need people who will care about me, try to help me, and know when to bring me cookies. I need someone who will be my friend without me asking. 

I'm not the most out-going person in the world. I'm not the shyest. But I have been hurt many times and because of that I have a hard time opening up to, trusting, and making connections with people. However, if someone were to make an effort or reach out and try to get to know me, I would do my best to open up and be a friend in return. I can be the most loyal friend you ever meet, if you give me the friendship I need. 

I've had my bouts of loneliness in my life. But after finding some amazing friends in high school who took the time to get to know me and care about me I found that the moments of loneliness got fewer and I enjoyed going out and trying new things. These friends were the best thing that could have happened to me. Not every single one of them was available all the time, but I knew that if one was busy, I had another one to go to. I trusted and loved them and they trusted and loved me. 

Of course since being out of high school, my friends and I have gone our separate ways and have drifted apart. But when we get together every once in a while, it's a great reunion and I enjoy it. Also since the end of high school, I have made other friends. Some became closer friends than others and some just stayed as acquaintances. But throughout these few years of being away from home and my friends there is one thing that I have always wondered: I think of them. Do they think of me? 

I don't need to constantly be in contact with my friends. I don't have to hear from them all the time. I don't have to see them all the time. (Which was hard at first when I moved away from home, but I learned to cope.) But it's nice to be reminded every once in a while that they think of me and miss me. I miss all of them and think of them and the good times we had all the time. I'd like to think that I was a good friend, that I made a difference in their lives. 

I value friendship. I truly believe that the friends we make are the family that we choose when you make the right connections. I once considered my friends to be my family because we had those connections. Now that we have grown up and gotten busy with life and growing up, I don't know anymore, because I don't know if I made the impact I thought I did. I don't hear from my friends often. I don't know what they are doing, how they are doing, or even where some of them are at. I don't need to know the details of their lives (even though I kind of want to). All I ask is that they don't forget me.