MOG #27: With a little help from my friends

I just got back from a staff social with my newspaper workplace and it genuinely felt like friends getting together for sushi rather than co-workers awkwardly picking rolls together and bringing cue cards full of conversation starts. Friends, real friends. It's been the topic of much focus recently, from hearing I have to change campuses to realizing I may never see some of my friends again once they graduate this spring, even though we've spent so many important moments together over the past four years. Friends, true friends. Like the ones who do homework with you on a Saturday afternoon; or the ones who let you in on important parts of their lives or the ones you know you can always count on to answer you messages when you're trying to make sense of why the world seems to be against you that day. Friends, good friends. Our next contributor is a boss, but also a friend, and someone who has been incredibly supportive of mogs. Bruno sent me a message today as soon as I got home and I guess we must be on the same brain wave today- feeling grateful for the idea of friendship, each in our own way, yet somehow through the same parameters.
How lucky are we?

I've been trying to come up with a good example of a moment of gratitude in my life for this amazing project, and even though the mastermind behind it had given a 360 day deadline for a submission (she knows how busy and crazy things can get for me) I've been hoping that I would be able to complete this task earlier than that. And then last night happened.

I had made plans with who I would consider my "best bro", my dude, the one other guy that I can chat about everything and anything. This was a big deal as we haven't been able to actually hang out in since before Christmas, and I'm actually still in possession of his present. Anyway, the plan was to meet up tonight and go out in Hamilton with a few people for drinks and general merriment. I received a message sometime in the afternoon from another group of friends who were also getting together that night asking if I wanted to hang out, and respectfully declined explaining that I had plans already, but assuring them that next time they could count on me.

I sat around at home after dinner waiting to hear from my buddy as to when exactly plans were taking place until 10pm rolled around and no word was heard. Finally I received a text explaining he'd be late getting out of work and didn't think he'd be going out anymore. Under normal circumstances this type of text would not normally bother me, but given the frequency of failed attempts at getting together with this particular person, it was particularly upsetting that once again plans had fallen through. Angry, upset, and in general wanting to give up on the night I began to think that I should just queue up the Netflix and get ready for a night in. Suddenly another text comes through...my other group of friends checking in to see if I still wanted to hangout, and that if I was willing to make the trip out the Brampton that I should go because they'd love to have me with them. 

My night was given new hope! The anger I felt was quickly replaced with a happiness, and a feeling of being cared for by my friends. My best friend in the world encouraging me to not give up on the night and to come out still if I felt I like it. Well, I ended up making the trip to Brampton, I had a fantastic night with really good friends, and woke up this morning with my moment of gratitude.

This is certainly not the biggest of example of the reason why I'm grateful for my friends, but in that simple action of checking in, and wanting me there with them, and helping to turn my night around, I come to understand why gratitude and care towards our friends is important. I don't have a lot of family in Canada except for my nuclear family (mom, dad, brother,sister). My entire family is an 8 hour plane ride away from me. But in all the time I've lived here I've been able to connect with some people, and with one in particular (she knows who she is) , in such a manner that I don't feel that absence of family. I don't feel that absence of the love and care that one can get from a relative. When I do get the chance to visit my family in Peru, I can honestly say that I get homesick for Canada because of my friends. So I wanted to express how grateful I am for this. For the small things, and the big things we do for each other. For the way that you have become my surrogate family and continue to offer a love and care that is a little difficult to come by sometimes because of distance.

Thank you.
We all saw Stand By Me right? Let's just change the age but let this realization sink in...  "I never had any friends later on like the ones I did when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?"