Things blossom in the Spring besides flowers

It's been a long stretch, and several years of growing up, getting focused, unfocused, then refocused. There were people in my life all along that I hoped would remain, and have. Some that I tried and hoped to connect with but who have left my life in a move that later made me thankful for their exit. I've learned a lot about people, how they look at friendships, how I look at friendships. I learned that they can be the center that holds you together when you're about to explode into a million angry fragments, or the backbone that keeps you upright when you'd rather melt into a puddle on the floor.

They're a smile when you need it most, or when you didn't even know you needed one. They're the troopers that will always show at your parties when you want to be surrounded by fun. They are a cast of characters in your life that each serve a very different, beautiful, important and absolutely vital purpose in your world. It took 26 years to evolve into a group of friends that I love for who they are, and who love me for me. People go forever without finding maybe more than one or two, and I've found a whole bunch of 'em. And it makes me grateful for always standing by my standards, the ones that tell me when I think I might be getting screwed. The kind that keep the good in, and the bad out. I've tested these standards many times, and they haven't failed me yet, and the result is astounding, inspiring and all together...awesome.

I feel at home in my life, more so now than ever before, and though I have a ways to go before I'm "settled" as they say, I know that I'm on the right path today to get there, and I have the perfect people on board to join me and help me get there. Not only that, but one friend has emerged to me in a way I couldn't have imagined. They were there all along, a good friend, though not too close. But one who never failed to respond to a call for a good time, or a call to bail out one of my loved ones.

A friend has emerged in the form of what is a blossoming romance. A true testament that friendship is so often the door to something more beautiful, stronger and more satisfying than any other type of relationship I have yet experienced. I gave this friendship a chance to be something more, and it's grown quickly but very truthfully and honestly, into a relationship. I'm thrilled to have a friend who wants the things I want, who is attracted to me the way I am to them, who has fun doing the same things and the same sense of excitement and exploration that impassions my life. I can only wonder what may come for us down the road, but the beginning is the most fun. I intend to have an amazing time dating, and getting to better know, my friend, and boyfriend, Eric.