I love my friends.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends in my life. I don't know what I would do without them. It's such a fantastic feeling to have people to laugh with and to vent with; people I know I can always count on just like they can always count on me.

I know friends are there, but sometimes life gets crazy and there's no time to stop and thank them. Being on break has given me that time where I can sit back and appreciate life and the people who get me through it in the good times and the bad - you know who you are. I LOVE YOU ALL. SO MUCH. Thanks for being such an amazing part of my life. <3 <3 <3

And for my girls especially.... :)

"A speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin-a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression
and can create a general feeling of well being.

"Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?-rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym. 

"There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends." <3

OH HAI blog!

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've put up a new post. And by "a while" I mean...almost 3 months. xD Thing is, I've had the material for blog posts, just not the time (story of my LIFE).

So now that I'm (finally!) on Spring Break and just chilling at home, I'm going to make an effort to reconnect with my sharing-my-thoughts-with-the-Internet-world side.

Stay 'tooned! =)

The big TWO-OH

This past Monday (Jan. 3rd) was my twentieth birthday.

Huh.

I remember when turning 10 was a big deal -- double digits at last! I guess this one was a big deal too, but only when I really stop and think about it.

In some ways it's cool: a teenager no more! I'm one step closer to facing down the world as an "adult!"

"Adult" is a relative term. (xkcd.com)

In some ways, it's not so cool: a teenager no more. I really enjoyed those years, and I'm not so sure I'm ready to let them go.

But who says I have to? Coming back home from the college bubble is interesting. I've had all these life experiences and I'm growing into myself even more every day, but when I get back home everything seems the same as it was when I left. I kind of like that feeling; like I'm moving on but my hometown is staying the same. It's the anchor I'll always have to come home to.

My dad likes to say that I'm in limbo between being a teenager and a real "adult" at 21. I guess that's true, though I don't feel any different at 20 than I did at 19 or even 18. I know who I am and I'm confident in myself, and that won't change no matter how old I get.

Or, as my middle-aged Polish doctor put it, "You are twenty, single, and gorgeous. Life is good!"

It is indeed. =)