MOG #55: Give her time

Some people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I like to think of Justine as all three. She is one of the most caring people I know with the most gorgeous and brave and huge heart. I talked to her today about writing a post and she said she would try to but life was busy. I said no pressure, talk soon. She messaged me back a few hours later; clearly, what she has to say was important enough to do right away. Sometimes we have to recognize that we have time- we have all the time our lives can allot us, but it's about making time; making the effort. Time, as we know it, and as we are about to read, is the most precious gift.
Justine's words and Samantha's story tell is to use it wisely. 

5 years ago to this day, I lost someone very close to me.

 I’ve been trying to find the courage to write this out but have had trouble finding the words. How can one write something that does justice to one of the most amazing people they have ever met and sadly lost? Then I realized, this isn’t about me or how I feel, this isn’t about my loss, this is about spreading the message that every day is a blessing, that you can find gratitude in anything around you and I know that my beautiful departed Sammy would support this MOG movement 110%.

I met Samantha when I was 14 years old at a church camp. Within one week I grew to know and love her as if we had been friends since kindergarten. She had this ability to make everyone around her smile and to always find beauty in the smallest things. When you were with Sammy, you felt like the most important person in the world, she had this way of making you feel so incredibly special. Over the years our friendship remained strong, we visited when we could, we e-mailed (yes, e-mailed) every day to keep in touch and we talked on the phone for hours.

I can still remember vividly the last time I saw Samantha as a cancer-free girl. I was out for dinner with her and another friend; she complained of shoulder pain but didn’t know why it was there.  A few weeks later I received a phone call I’d never forget, Sam had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in her right arm and her chances of survival were very slim. I could not fathom why this would happen to someone so young, so incredible, with so much to offer to the world. However, when I and everyone else would have expected Sam to crumble and fall apart, she stood stronger than ever. She smiled through all her chemo, she still made sure she had time between everything to see me and catch up, she still went to her prom even after losing all her hair and a large part of her arm due to surgery. She was the most beautiful girl with the biggest smile in all her pictures. She was able to continually find gratitude in everything in her life and not let her struggles define her.

In my first year of university, we lost touch, not completely but enough. A week before her passing I had this strong urge to just simply text her and tell her I loved her and so I did. She of course promptly responded with “I love you too”. The next week I heard of her passing and felt completely lost. I came home, attended the funeral, saw old friends, chatted over mediocre funeral sandwiches and laughed at the good memories we all shared with Sammy, knowing she was finally out of pain and in a better place.

There was this song we would all sing at retreats was called “Do Something Beautiful” , it just so happened to be her favourite and my God, does it ever describe her. She found a way to do something beautiful every single day and she inspired others to do the same.

Although it is hard to have loved and lost, I am so beyond grateful to have met someone like Sam, who had such a beautiful and optimistic outlook on life. Her ability to remain gracious even through her darkest times; was and still is inspiring to everyone who had the honour to know her.

Sam’s story lives on to this day and although today is a sad day it truly reminded me how lucky I am to be here and be healthy, to have a loving healthy family, friends, a roof over my head, food on the table, the ability to actually LIVE my life.

I will be the first to admit that I am not a strong believer anymore and I’m not too sure what happens to us after we leave the physical world, but there was something about the way the sun streamed through my car windows and kissed my cheeks as I drove home from work today, I know it was her.

Sam,

Thank you for reminding me how lucky I am and for allowing me to be a part of your short, but incredible life. You will always be with me and I am forever grateful for your amazing friendship and your positive outlook on life; it truly left an imprint on me forever. I miss you immensely.

Love,

Justine

MOG #53: Inhale love, exhale fear

Today's MOG comes from a very special girl. She also happens to be the first person contribute a post that I have never met. Like any friends do, Brianne and I keep each other updated on the lives of the people are closest to, and for the past year I've been getting updates on Tara. Although they are not blood related, they are family. The bond is between Brianne and this very inspiring lady makes this MOG all the more touching to me, but Tara's words speak both for their own, for her brave, brave soul, and truly to what this project is all about. 

To choose one moment of gratitude would be impossible for me. I have been blessed my entire life and as I grow older I am realizing this. Living life with a chronic illness (Cystic Fibrosis) there are many ups and downs. Typically we tend to focus on the negatives; it’s human nature to do so. So whenever I would fall ill, lose weight, have a drop in lung function or a hospital stay I would always ask the question, ‘why me?’ I don’t deserve this. I did nothing wrong. I take all my meds, I do all my treatments. Why can’t my body just act like a normal body and be healthy if I take care of it?

Being told at the age of 17 that I had entered into “end stage lung function” left me in a downward spiral of my life falling apart in front of me with nothing I could do about it. I spent a few months in denial and attempted to go away to university like everyone else my age, but I could only fool myself, my family, my friends and my doctors for so long. I was hospitalized and told that I had to drop out of school. This news hit me almost as hard as being told I was at the end stage of my disease. This made everything real. I was no longer able to blend in with the crowd as a normal person. My disease was taking over my body and my life with nothing I could do to stop it.

This is where my moment of gratitude comes in. Over the next year and a half I became so ill that I couldn’t get out of bed without being exhausted, let alone do any normal day-to-day activities like showering, walking down a flight of stairs or socializing with friends. I started to shut myself off from the world. I became a machine. I woke up, forced food into me to hopefully maintain some weight, did treatments, took meds and went back to bed. This was my life on repeat now.

As my body was failing me, Doctors were working to get me healthy enough to present my case to the Organ Transplant Committee so that I could list for new lungs – which at this point was my only hope of living to my 19^th birthday or beyond.

First moment of gratitude: The amazing care, dedicated hard work and companionship I observed and developed with my doctors, nurses, respirologists, dieticians, etc. All of them made it seem as though I was their only patient and that I was their primary focus. Their goal was to get me the chance to receive a double lung transplant and gain a second chance not only at a life but at a life I only ever could have imagined in my dreams.

As I continued on my journey to list for transplant it was a few close friends, my boyfriend and my family that helped to pull me out of my machine-like state of being. They attempted to cheer me up whenever they could. They listened to me vent, complain, cry, yell – you name it, they were there. They gave me the drive and the fight that I needed to successfully list for transplant, undergo surgery and make a miraculous recovery.

Second moment of gratitude: For everyone who stood by my side through the darkest moments of my life. They gave me reason to fight. They showed me that my will to survive had not gone but was just tucked deep down inside of me. Specifically to my nephew who was 3 at the time, who said to me “You look like Grandma Betty!” referring to my oxygen. This shocked me as I knew that our 92 year old Grandma Betty was on her death bed and I realized that I too was in the same position but there was no way I was not going to be around to watch my adorable little nephew grow up. He was the fuel that started the fire in me. My friends, family and boyfriend then added more fuel to my fire through their everyday acts of support, kindness, love and care. To my friends who cried with me and said “I don’t know how I could live my life without a Tara in it.” Many have felt like they were adding pressure onto my already crazy life, but really it gave me more motivation. The sicker I got, the more people reached out to express how much I was needed in their lives. They showed me how I had impacted them and I was amazed to see how much I had done just by being a friend, a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend or even just an acquaintance at school, work or in the community.

I successfully underwent my transplant on February 1^st, 2012. And from the moment the breathing tube was removed and I was breathing on my own I knew my life would never be the same. As I recovered in the Toronto hospital, my small hometown of Sarnia was pulling together to put on a fundraiser to help out my family with the costs of my new medications, living in Toronto, driving to and from Toronto for visits and the many other expenses of a new transplant life.

Third moment of gratitude: To the organizers, the sponsors and everyone who participated in my fundraiser. It was held at the local Boston Pizza as well as the one in Simcoe, my mom’s hometown. Together they raised over $25,000 to help cover medical expenses for my family – taking a great deal of stress off my parent’s shoulders. People I had never met before came to support me, sent kind well wishes and were follow each step of my journey. A special shout out to Sandy Boldt (my Momma #2), a close family friend who took on the role of organizer for the event. Without her the fundraiser would not have been anywhere near as much of a success.

Throughout this entire process of health decline and then the excitement of a new life there was one person who tagged along for the journey, unknowing of what he was getting into. That person is my boyfriend of 3 years now. He was told on our 2^nd date that I was going for a hospital stay but not to worry as it was “no big deal, just a tune up CF people have to do”…boy was that the biggest understatement of the year. A person, whom I hardly knew since we had met working at Walmart decided to become my best friend and stand by my side while my health declined. It was not your typical relationship. I spent most of my time in hospital whether in London or Toronto. If I was home I had hardly any energy to do anything so most date nights consisted of putting on a movie, me falling asleep and him carrying me up to bed at the end of the night. He sat with me while I did hours of treatments and took endless amounts of medications. He became my rock and my number one supporter. Therefore…

Fourth moment of gratitude: To my boyfriend Eric. He is the sweetest, most amazing human being I have ever met. Not only for sticking with me when he easily could have turned his back and found a ‘normal’ girl to date, but for making me feel as though there was still a little bit of ‘normal’ in me. That I was not my disease, I was Tara. And who are we kidding, what 20 year old boy is typically willing to do all that he did for me when he found out on our second date that I had a chronic illness? A very rare few, but I was lucky enough to find one and to be able to call him mine.

And in closing as I am now just over 2 years post-transplant, I can say that’s 758 days, 18,192 hours or 1,091,520 minutes that I would not have lived to see if it was not for the decision that someone made to become an organ donor, to become my hero and to save my life.

Fifth and final moment of gratitude: My organ donor, for without them I would not be able to sit here and be thankful for everything and everyone in my life. I would not have moments of gratitude, but rather last moments spent with people that would now be just memories to them. So yes, I still have days where I hate that I have CF and I hate the complications from transplant, but I also have days where I complain about not wanting to go to class or not wanting to cook a meal for myself. I can complain about normal things now. I can plan ahead for my future. I have an appreciation for each and every single day, every small moment. I enjoy feeling emotions again – even though some may say I am overly emotional – I can say with confidence that it is much better this way than it is to be feeling nothing. 

So I guess if I had to choose just ONE moment of gratitude I would have to cheat a little and say that my moment is being alive to experience a life which brings moments of gratitude to me every day.

MOG #52: Lost and found

Some people come into your life and you wonder why they weren't there all along. When I look back on my four years at school, I will remember her beautiful face; both for what she is and who she has helped me to be. Thankfully, I've known her for the better part of my four years at school and I use the term "thankfully" quite literally; the conversations and moments I've had with Lauren have always been eye opening- she is one of those people I can completely open up to and as a result say words I didn't know I had to say, yet it all comes out in perfect sense. It's been such an honour knowing her and calling her one of my favourite friends. I almost titled this post "The most deserving" because that what she is; the most deserving of finding her own sense of self, happiness and gratitude. Reading this MOG brought tears to my eyes but a light to my heart, as I can read she is starting to see herself the way I, and so so many others, see her; as the funny, bright, honest and completely genuine soul who has summer in her eyes, love in her smile and ambition in her bones. 

When reading all of these brilliant MOGs, it’s so inspirational to know there is so many wonderful unique influences that people are able to give to others.  It’s amazing to see the love, inspiration, motivation, and positivity that others can effect on people.  So, when I was sitting down one day thinking about something grateful, a moment of gratitude, I feel as though my MOG may come off as a little bit selfish, however bare with me on this because I swear I have a point to it all, and its something that I feel we all need to remind ourselves of this gratitude, but I digress: my MOG is finding happiness within myself and my life.  

If we dial back a couple years, back to looking at myself entering first year.  I was confused, lost, lonely, negative, and low on confidence.  I’ll never forget what one of my friends once told me about myself: “you could have a million positive things happen to you, and once one negative thing happens in your day, you become completely down on yourself, and everything around you.”  And its true, I was, and am my own worst enemy at times.  I would put myself down on a daily basis, I would blame myself for all of my problems.  A relationship went south?  Oh it was definitely because I wasn’t pretty enough, or funny enough, or skinny enough.  This cloud of depression weighed me down.  I never believed that I deserved anything that made me happy.  I isolated myself from my friends and I would live each day with the mindset of “just get through it”. I have spent years living in this exhausted mind frame until there was one moment, my moment of gratitude when I finally realized: “my life is amazing”.  

I was tired of living in this negative cloud, isolating myself from others because I thought that I didn’t deserve the happiness that others had around me.  The moment I decided that I am just as great of a person as the people around me everything changed.  I felt like everything became more positive, and days always ended on a bright note.  I have been able to become closer with all of my friends, I enjoy the little pleasures in life more, I laugh more, I smile more, I love myself more.  

I feel like the moment that I decided to change my perception on life, to think more positive about myself and things around me that everything became easier.  Everyday is such an enjoyment and gift.  I look forward to the unknowns of the day: the people that I meet, the jokes that I will laugh at, and the negatives that I will learn from.  

Now back to my point of selfishness.  Of course, the place that I am at now would never have happened without my wicked support system.  I am so thankful for the love from my friends, the support of my family, and the inspiration from everyone and everything including this amazing woman who is the founder of this blog.  However, I feel (and this goes for everyone), you can’t truly have this epiphany of a new “you”, a positive perception on your life and what surrounds you, until you can look in the mirror, and not only say but believe it when you tell yourself “I deserve this”.  Its the moment that I was able to love myself, that love was able to come in.  It was the moment that I realized that I was alright that I was able to embrace the hiccups of life as a stepping stone to something greater, rather than a rock weighing me down.  Your external factors can only help you so much.  Its when you believe in the change for yourself that the wonderful things can happen.
And from this moment I feel like its changed me forever, into something better.  I’ve left the old Lauren at the door with her negative thoughts and I embrace the new Lauren who is confident, positive, and happy.  I am thankful each and every day that I was able to have my moment of pure happiness for myself, and I hope that each and everyone in their lives can have this moment too, because it will never the same, and trust me its so awesome.

February Review: 5 dollars

Hellllo!
Month two has come and gone, and we've had some lovely (Seriously, lots of love in these posts) over the past 28 days. As always, here's a recap:

#36: Tulips- Cutest roommate appreciation post ever
#37: Parents- takes one to love one
#38: Domenic- From mom, with love
#39: Reflexivity- "I want to see you be brave"
#40: Looking Ahead- for the next six weeks of school
#41: Cosmic - To N, xoxo M
#42: Legally, Taylor- she did it y'all
#43: Love loves, love- that's a lot of love
#44: Do that one unexpected thing- so it begins...
#45: The Wake up- a must read; plain and simple
#46: Absolutely nothing: just a little ramble on my behalf.
#47: ReJoyce- tales of a successful marriage
#48: Dance first, think later- a form of flight for the soul
#49: Across the Kilometers- good friends, good times
#50: Consistency, and Courtney- beautiful words for a beautiful girl 

This past few weeks have been a bit tumultuous, but there have definitely been some very high points. Every time an #mog came in, the days got better, no matter what. I've definitely settled more into a routine of managing your posts while trying to lead a grounded day to day and it's a very exciting thing to realize something so big has become so routine-it means it's a habit. Let's perfect it.

I've come to a lot of realizations about myself, who I chose to be surrounded by, my future career goals and what else is there to do. No matter what the topic, there's a consistent metaphor of the full circle: everything's coming it's way back around. Some echos of karma, but moreso, a refinding of what was always there.

Yesterday I went to school with five dollars in my pocket that I planned to buy breakfast with. When it came time to pay, that blue bill was nowhere in my bag. I'm pretty scattered brained by nature- I lose things all the time, but I was really set on not losing that bill. As a broke students, sometimes five dollars is just as important as five thousand dollars. So I was so mad at myself when I thought I had lost it. After a full 9-5 day of school, on a Friday nonetheless, I ended up back in the same cafeteria to have a quick dinner with the other half of the team. On our way to the bus, we took the same stairwell that's tucked away in the corner of the space; I really don't think many know about it. What's sitting on the floor, but a five dollar bill; in a very close spot to where we were in the morning; folded in the same way and even the same print (new plastic version rather than the old paper one).

Maybe someone else had dropped five dollars today; maybe I was caught on camera for some secret project that judges people for what they pick up off the ground, maybe it was just good luck, maybe it's a testament to the people at school who don't want to pick up five dollars that isn't there's... maybe it's just everything coming back around.
Be prepared to get back from the universe everything you put into it.

Alright March, let's do this.

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MOG #50: Consistency, and Courtney

The thing about gratitude is that it's a very deliberate act. You have to recognize it, choose it, feel it. There is a great deal of ownership within the concept. Sometimes it's very hard to decide that and it takes practice to really see it and understand the implications. It's easy to feel grateful when things are great. It's easy to feel gratitude once you realize the abundance of light in your life. It's easy to perpetuate being gracious once you start. But when life inevitably becomes difficult, painstakingly brutal and absolutely unforeseen, it becomes that much harder to see any light, let alone the light of the gratitude.
Yet, it can be done.
The beautiful and selfless Ms. Katie Kolenko just did it.
We met last year when she was leaving for teachers college and I was in need of a room. I knew from the very beginning of my brief time in 134J that I was not meant to fill any shoes;she is irreplaceable. I'm grateful for many things that came out that home; the relationships built with the girls I shared it with, the thoughts that occupied my room, the lessons that came out of moving in and moving on, but I am especially grateful I was able to meet this one. She is a light that is brighter than most. Even in the sunshine, she shines. Here is an MOG from the most kind, generous and strong person, written for someone she has recently lost. Clearly written from a caring and grieving heart that has been touched by an angel. 
My suggestion is to listen to load these songs before you read,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BRdY0NR08g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miOEmyjpLkU


She was a beautiful and shining soul.

For the people we are lucky to meet in our journeys - those who change us in some way, help us grow, inspire us, love us - we should be the most grateful. That is one thing I know to value above nearly everything: the special people you have in your life, ones that have come and gone and ones that are lucky enough to still be in it, and even those who seemed to have barely touched down but almost surely made an impact whether you have noticed yet or not. They are the ones you should demonstrate the most gratitude toward, for whatever length of time their lives intertwine with your own. I place a great deal of importance on experiencing and embracing independence. A relationship with yourself. I enjoy solitary moments probably more often than is good for my social life... but our relationships with others, the efforts we make to engage with one another and celebrate each other and be changed by one another, is what truly brings “life” to this life. So, if those relationships don’t deserve consistent gratitude, I don’t know what does.

I do not have a blog or some public forum of writing; certainly if I did have one, it would not be nearly as inspiring as this one and I don’t mind admitting that one bit. And I do love this blog, and the message it shares daily. I make a conscious effort to think about it on a similarly frequent basis, and today was one of those occasions. I thought about how I was grateful for my best friend and how her own blog and journey of happiness had inspired me a couple mornings ago... MOG 1 through 49 made me realize that it would be completely selfish to keep this gratitude to myself, and not share it with her. I don’t believe in doing positive things or being a “good” person for the result of being noticed and receiving recognition, but I do believe that it is important to let others know they are appreciated, or that they’ve inspired someone/something. That sounds like a contradiction. I don’t mean it to be. The thing is, sometimes you’re lucky enough to realize that you can thank a person or say something to them, like I did today. Other times, you are forced to acknowledge the brutal reality that there are days you are not so lucky, and will not get another opportunity to tell a person something directly, like I was forced to acknowledge one 2-in-the-morning scroll through Facebook, Feb.18.

Funny how the good ones go, too soon, but the good Lord knows the reasons why, I guess. Sometimes the greater plan is kinda hard to understand; right now, it don’t make sense.

I can’t make it all make sense.

The truly lovely founder and writer of this blog, I’ve learned, seems to have the ability to just know when there are emotions in someone that need some tending to. Beyond that, she has the insight to suggest a way in which they may be tended. So she asked if I wanted to write something. She won’t know how much that meant.

I have rambled more than my share already, so I will try to keep future rambling to a minimum. Courtney - who she was, what she’s done, and the legacy she will continue to have - will persist, with or without great detail from me. Friend/Family/Lover/Teacher/Cancer-survivor/Volunteer/Believer/Athlete/Motivator... the list is endless and surpasses the limitation of words.

I met Courtney in Teacher’s College. Oh, did she ever find her perfect profession. She went to OISE and I went to York, and by the connection of our brilliant and beloved teacher, both made the decision to spend our third placement in Kenya, Africa. Three weeks seems like a hardly significant time. But I’m sure many of you can agree, and I know those who were with me on that journey certainly will: it can be of the utmost significance. I have a few favourite memories of Courtney that I almost began to type, but those details I think I will save. Instead, I will say that I remember her as the girl with whom I began my journey at our campsite by making our very first interactions with our young Kenyan neighbours - her, initiating, slowly and carefully bridging physical distance, enticing laughter and smiles through silly dance moves that were echoed back to us from across the field, thus symbolizing the beginning of new relationships and life experiences. I remember her as the girl I sat with under the wide expanse of night sky on one of the very first nights, finding our constellations hidden behind the clouds, with the help of our stargazing app. I remember her as the girl who I had just begun to know, and yet already remembered tiny seemingly insignificant facts about me, and came rushing to find me the moment she spotted my very favourite Ursa Major and, as she witnessed my reaction, amazed me by mirroring my excitement in her own face. I remember her as the girl who repeatedly made me stop in my tracks in amazement, as I found her taking the time to connect with people with such ease, in a way I sometimes forgot to, often didn’t know how to. I remember her as the girl who shared my apprehensions of coming back to our typical reality, and understood and felt things I didn’t need to describe. I remember her as so much, and I am grateful for every bit of memory whether mental, written, or photographed I possess of her. I am also deeply and exceedingly grateful for the rest of our group, who were there to hold hands with and share pain and love with, as we said goodbye together to her physical self last weekend, taking solace in the fact that we understood each other and our emotions. Their presence whether it is near or far is something I so severely rely on whether they realize it or not.

~

Courtney was (note: the distinction between was/is will forever be strange and painful) a genuine, shining light of a human being. She radiated kindness, love, thoughtfulness, generosity, humbleness, and a true passion for helping others. She was being the change, she was making a difference. She will continue to inspire me daily, in so many ways.

So long, my friend. Until we meet again.

My heart is devastated that you've left us far too soon; we love you Courtney.

MOG #49: Across the Kilometers

You've meet Kathleen before, (re: Unhooking), and she's back with some more gracious thoughts to share. Her words always fall off the screen and into my lap the way that stories were read to me growing up; there is a wisdom here, a sense of nostalgia and a overarching theme of all the ways love can manifest. 

We met when we were in grade 9. Two 14 year olds, with so much in common; including our first names. Yes Kathleen and I quickly became best friends and dubbed ourselves KathleenSquared. We shared a lot of life experiences and we shared a social group for most of high school. We did a lot of typical high school best friend things. We went shopping, bought matching shirts, took selfies, played the piano and karaoke’d songs. We went bowling, went to fairs, had sleepovers and attended one another’s parties. We talked about boys; we coached each other about boys and were there for each other over MSN, the phone or in person when life threw knocks to our teenage selves.

A few years ago she went away to a Catholic University which was quite a distance from where our homes are. That was no obstacle; we moved from MSN and the land line to cell phones and Facebook.  In her second year she started dating a guy she had met at school. I was more than happy for her, thankful that she had found a good guy after some of the iffy guys she had been involved with in high school. In the winter semester of my second year which was the end of her third and final year she called me one day at 2am to tell me that she was engaged. I was overjoyed.

A couple months later while she was sleeping over for a few days she asked me to be a bridesmaid. Naturally I said yes. It was the very first time I had been asked to be in a wedding. We got to planning and the date was set for the following summer.  Around the same time she announced that she was going back to school but this time she was going to BC. Yes, she was going even further away then she had been before and was also planning a wedding.

Over the course of that year from Ontario to BC we talked often, with her wedding being a major topic. Being so far away from each other I think we only saw each other once on Christmas break. If I had been with her I think I would have known or at least sensed “it”.

“It” did not come to light until May, a few months before her wedding. I got a phone call one afternoon; it was Kathleen. I wasn’t expecting her to call. She was crying and the next thing I knew she was telling me she had broken off her engagement and called off the wedding. I hadn’t seen it coming. I wished I had. I wished we lived closer together. I tried to hug her with my words over the phone. I told her I would support her no matter what happened and I stuck to that.

Life went on, people were really hard on her but I honestly believe(d) she had made the right decision. Marrying that guy was not the right thing for her to do. Better to call it off and discover later it was the right thing rather than go ahead and do it and discover it wasn’t right. That summer she was back home in Ancaster and I was in Burlington and so we were able to spend some time together.

During the summer she introduced me to a male friend of hers. The first day we spent all together we went to Canada’s Wonderland. I watched them together and I wondered to myself in my all knowing best friend way if this guy was actually the right one.

Early last fall she called me and told me that she was dating that guy: I was in no way surprised to hear this and once again I threw my support behind her as others scoffed at her for dating a guy so soon after breaking her engagement and wedding. But I just knew it was the right thing.

At Christmas I saw both of them and became more assured that this guy was indeed the right guy. As the semester got rolling I had the itch to travel and spent hours looking at all inclusive vacations, cruises and Groupon’s. 11 days before Reading Week began I was suddenly struck by the idea of going to BC to visit Kathleen. I called her and found out she could make it work for the week so the next thing I knew I was booking flights. I was going to BC to visit my best friend for Reading Week.

Reading Week is now drawing to a close and I am back in Ontario. I spent a joyous and beautiful few days with Kathleen and her hilarious gentleman boyfriend who is skilled in opening two car doors for two ladies at one time. I made the right decision. It was the best Reading Week I could have imagined. BC is beautiful, it was 9 degrees Celsius which felt warm compared to the Ontario winter we have had.

I have been learning over the past couple of years that friendships can very quickly change for a variety of reasons and if you have a friendship that remains strong and you are still close, even across the kilometers; THAT is a friendship you should hold onto. I am never letting go of her. I am so excited to see what happens in the future; for our friendship and for her relationship with the right guy; the sun is shining bright on us.

Love you Kath, Thanks for being so loyal and steadfast in this ever changing world.