Give Thanks Day 3: Friendship

Today I am thankful for friendship.  

The past two days I've been thankful for specific people and the blessings they are in my life.  Today I'm thankful for all the people I've known throughout my life.  The way I see it, there are many different kinds of people in a person's life.  Sure there's the ones who stick around forever, they are the non-blood family I've talked about before.  Many more, however, may only be in a person's life for a short period of time.  It can be a few months, like some of the people I met at my first university, or it could be a couple of years, like some of my high school friends.

Each person who touches your life leaves a mark.  Rarely, if ever, we see what that mark is, though we can speculate (which I have and will).  I know that each person I've had the honor of knowing, however short of a time, contributes to who I am today.  I also think that there are certain people who might bring out traits already within a person.  They might give them a different perspective on something or an idea about how to use their talents.

I know I've been inspired to worry less, love more, appreciate my family, stand up for what I believe in, write, never take life for granted, and stay grounded in what really matters.  I also know there are countless other ways I've been influenced by the people I've known.  

Now, I said that even people I've known for a short period of time have had an impact on my life. There's two people I've been thinking about recently who've had a huge impact on me lately.  Both of these people I knew only briefly and both of them are no longer with us.  

One of them sadly took her own life.  I can't pretend to know the demons one must face when suicide seems to be the only way out, but her death has taught me many things.  I've seen the outpouring from her closest friends.  Her memorial page has hundreds of members.  Her funeral service was huge.  I wonder if she knew just how many people loved and cared for her.  I've learned to keep things in perspective more.  I think about her often and hope her family and close friends are doing okay.  

The other died recently from injuries sustained in a car accident.  There were so many people who rallied around his family while he was in the ICU.  Letters of love and support flooded his website.  The funeral was, understandably, heart wrenching.  I wish I had the ability to express exactly how I feel about this, but it's still relatively new.  I'm heartbroken for his family, who we've known for some time now.  I'm heartbroken for his close friends.  I'm heartbroken for the people he helped through his extracurricular work.  Most of all, I'm heartbroken for him.  I wish he could have lived longer.  I've learned more to never doubt what I can do and to be everything I can be--I'm alive and here for a reason.  When there are others who don't even have that chance, it would be a terrible shame for me to waste what I have.  

I won't ever forget these two wonderful people.  They were gone too soon.  It's not always a cheerful thing, the lessons we learn from the people we know.  Sometimes we learn difficult lessons and truths about life.  But I have to believe it's all worth it, in the end.  

19 Days to Thanksgiving.

Signed,

RF