hey there, friend

Today was one of the biggest reliefs in my life. Today I went to school for the first time in a month (I don't realy count those three days). I wouldn't say I was eager to go to school, as I fumbled to remember my locker combination from the long time I had been away from school, and my eyelids weren't quite open all the way when I got to school. I was also living in fear the whole day, that I had forgotten to do something or that tests would not be postponed to a later date. It was a little bit of a "woah there" day (and for those of you who do not understand my incredibly vogue colloquial phrase, I mean "woah there" as in "woah, there, easy tiger", or "woah, there, hold your cheese nuggets").

But mostly I was ready to go back and see all of my friends. I had missed them so much when I was gone and I never realized how much I would reallyget bored without their company. Today was like a healthy dose of medicine to aid my social being. Humans are social creatures, and we need people. But we need to have all sorts of different people, because, as you can see, being with the same people for weeks on end without seeing anyone else can gte a little drab. Actually a lot drab.
I forgot how great it was to talk to a friend. To laugh at stupid jokes with them, to tell stories to them, to talk about absolutely nothing. The act of talking to new people (or people I hadn't seen in weeks) was exhilerating.
You know the old saying that you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. That's the cool part. You are bound to your family because, well, they are your family, but your friends are bound to you because you made a decision to reach out to them one day. Or maybe they reached out to you and you accepted their friendship. But you actually get to choose your friends, which makes them so special. In this way, friends are kind of like abstract version of yourself. There is a part of you that you also share with your friends.
Enjoy the gift of friendship. Try to reach out to one new person every month, whether you talk to them at school, at work, in public, in the dentist's office, or even in Home Depot. Just a simple, "hey there, friend" can make someone feel happy. Connect with old friends again, or go out with friends and enjoy their company.
Even in tough national financial circumstances (you may prefer the more hackneyed term "these economic times", which can be found on many banned phrases lists for it's overused-ness) or rough times in your family, job, or school work, if you have friends, they can pull you through.