Today I got a message from one of my best friends at home, KatieHart (one word, not two) and she signed it, "Love, Purple Katie." Not going to even lie a little bit, I definitely teared up a bit. Though it was almost 8 years ago when we all met each other at cheer camp, yes, I said cheer camp, it seems like just yesterday I was stretching in a circle with the girls who would soon become some of my dearest friends. Mel, KR, and KatieHart were all there. Later I'd meet Molls, KP, Rach, Riley, Corinne, and Mary (I think in freshman choir?) We weren't even 15 yet but we thought we had the world figured out. Well, judging by the fact that I was in choir, on a cheerleading squad, and fully convinced I was going to marry my highschool boyfriend, it's safe to say I didn't figure things out until much, much later. In fact, still figuring. I'll keep you posted on that one.
I just can't get over where we all are now and how different we all are now. How we've grown up, but not really apart. How we've all changed but all have stayed exactly the same. Some of us still talk weekly, some of us not at all, but these were the girls who literally shaped who I am today, and I definitely have to thank them for that. Without their love, support, compassion, and friendship, I would be someone completely different. Someone I'm not sure I'd care to know.
The point is, the people you surround yourself with, and the people you chose to associate yourself with, are the people who shape you. The people who define you. In order to be your best, you have to be with the best. Those around you raise you up to their caliber, and without them, you'll just settle for what's handed to you. Maybe it was my close group of friends at that small, catholic school wedged between a farm and a graveyard on the side of Gravois, maybe it was the SLU or Desmet boys, maybe it was all the nuns and Padre running around keeping us in line, maybe it was the pep rallies, the green icencream, the donuts after assemblies, or the semester long spans where we never actually had school for a full week. Maybe it was the sleepovers when 15 girls piled into my room after running down Lindbergh at 6 am, the Friday night football games, the driving around in Molly's convertible, the blood curling screams in KP's car on the way to volunteering, the massages from Rach in computer class, the hot tub chats with Kris, or the summer I spent working with Ian. Maybe it was getting lost downtown, the thousands of movies we saw, the hundreds of times we went shopping, or the millions of times we got into trouble. Maybe it was Pennyqueen, STU-CO, swimteam, or Jr. Ring. Maybe it was father/daughter or homecoming. Maybe it was a little bit of everything. Yeah. I'm lucky enough to say I was, and still am, surrounded by the absolute best.
So I guess I guess I have just one thing to say, and if you weren't at a small, all-girls Catholic school in Missouri named Cor Jesu Academy wearing a white button-up oxford and a wool kilt, standing on your lunch chair screaming your lungs out every first Friday, you probably won't even begin to realize how much it means to us:
Who can say if I've been changed for the better? Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.
(That, and, "I'm bringing sexy back"...but that's a different story for a different day <3 JT)
Love,
me
I just can't get over where we all are now and how different we all are now. How we've grown up, but not really apart. How we've all changed but all have stayed exactly the same. Some of us still talk weekly, some of us not at all, but these were the girls who literally shaped who I am today, and I definitely have to thank them for that. Without their love, support, compassion, and friendship, I would be someone completely different. Someone I'm not sure I'd care to know.
The point is, the people you surround yourself with, and the people you chose to associate yourself with, are the people who shape you. The people who define you. In order to be your best, you have to be with the best. Those around you raise you up to their caliber, and without them, you'll just settle for what's handed to you. Maybe it was my close group of friends at that small, catholic school wedged between a farm and a graveyard on the side of Gravois, maybe it was the SLU or Desmet boys, maybe it was all the nuns and Padre running around keeping us in line, maybe it was the pep rallies, the green icencream, the donuts after assemblies, or the semester long spans where we never actually had school for a full week. Maybe it was the sleepovers when 15 girls piled into my room after running down Lindbergh at 6 am, the Friday night football games, the driving around in Molly's convertible, the blood curling screams in KP's car on the way to volunteering, the massages from Rach in computer class, the hot tub chats with Kris, or the summer I spent working with Ian. Maybe it was getting lost downtown, the thousands of movies we saw, the hundreds of times we went shopping, or the millions of times we got into trouble. Maybe it was Pennyqueen, STU-CO, swimteam, or Jr. Ring. Maybe it was father/daughter or homecoming. Maybe it was a little bit of everything. Yeah. I'm lucky enough to say I was, and still am, surrounded by the absolute best.
So I guess I guess I have just one thing to say, and if you weren't at a small, all-girls Catholic school in Missouri named Cor Jesu Academy wearing a white button-up oxford and a wool kilt, standing on your lunch chair screaming your lungs out every first Friday, you probably won't even begin to realize how much it means to us:
Who can say if I've been changed for the better? Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.
(That, and, "I'm bringing sexy back"...but that's a different story for a different day <3 JT)
Love,
me
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