Since I was a kid I’ve watched shows and read books about people who have friends that are like family, like in ‘Friends’, ‘The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’ series, ‘Mates, Dates’ series, ‘Harry Potter’, the list goes on! I’ve always wished to have a solid group of friends like that. Don’t get me wrong, I have friends but for some reason, the books always made it sound so much more exciting. They would go shopping together, have the same cycle, share clothes, like the same guys (well, that’s awkward) have joint phone calls and always know what the others were talking about.
Often, it left me wondering where my group of friends like this are, if I would ever have a connection like this with people in this way. Then life got in the way I guess and I didn’t get much of a chance to think about this, I had exams, hay fever, assignments, work, meals out, – and all the while I got through it all and had loads of fun because of my friends and family.
Then, a few weeks ago on a much anticipated day out, I knew. I’m not sure why, but whilst sitting there drinking my hot chocolate, I suddenly remembered wondering about this so many years ago - wondering if I’ll ever feel like the characters I’ve read about in books. What I realised, there, at that moment, was that I had it. I'd always had it. I’d actually had them for a long time only I didn’t think about it in that way. I was too busy being busy to realise that I had what I’d always wondered about!!
And no matter how far away we are from each other, whatever jobs we go on to do and no matter what corner of the earth life takes us to, we are always here for each other.
Anyway, the moral of the story here is…what I’m really trying to say…is that sometimes we have things already but we don’t always notice at first. Often it’s when we lose those things that we realise what we actually had, by which time it’s too late. We don’t always have epiphanies whilst drinking coffee so don’t wait for that epiphany. Seize what you have and make the most of it!
Go on, make the most of the opportunities we have and the people in our lives!
p.s. obviously now I realise that it is the job of writers to wake up your imagination and in order to make things more appealing and interesting, they often (not always) exaggerate - so I’m not sure we can ever really achieve what they did in some of the books I read!! Ever the optimist eh!? :)
