The Family You Choose

Lauren Fitzgerald, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Winnie the Pooh once said, “Good friends will stick with you until you’re unstuck.” Well, he got stuck in honey trees and Rabbits hole many times. Despite his consistency of getting stuck, it was always his friends that helped him get out. My friends would do the same.

I sat for days trying to figure out what to write for this column. I went from idea to idea and they always mushed into nothing. It turns out, the answer was around me the whole time screaming, laughing and bringing constant joy to the air around me. My friends are my people, they’re my whole heart.

You wouldn’t know too much about me if I didn’t share with you my whole heart. So, my friends complete me. I’m always open to developing more friendships, and I’m happy to say that I still am my senior year at Assumption.

Would I be anything without my friends? Well, I’d probably still be someone, but not me. My friends lift my sarcasm and my laughter. They bring me energy on the bad days, and much more happiness on the good. They are with me through thick and thin, and I would do anything for them.

Of course, the number of friends that you have doesn’t matter. What matters is if your relationships are healthy. If they’re not, no matter how much you try to brush things off, you won’t be healthy. I’ve lost friends like that in my life, and while it was difficult it’s certainly better to lose someone else than to lose yourself.

Friends are always there for you, consistently. No matter what, true friends have your back, even if you’ve cried every single day for a straight week. Sometimes, they’ll tell you straight that you need to pull yourself together. Those are good friends. If they don’t care about your feelings, then they don’t care about you.

Friends support you. They show up to your events or games and maybe even bring a sign. As soon as I touched ground in the U.S. after being out of the country for 4 months, my friends were there in the lobby of Logan Airport with signs and loud cheers. It was the best thing I could have ever come back to.

Most of all, friends make every single day for you wonderful. Even on the worst days, when you have tears streaming down your face, they make you laugh like an idiot. On those good days, when you’re having fun with them, there’s nothing but bliss in your heart. You’ll know that these rambunctious people are the nitwits that you need in your life.

I’m happy to say that my friends are all of these, maybe even more. They’re loud and foolish at times, but a day spent without them is boring. Assumption has been a blessing to me in that sense, because it has brought me people that I know I will have in my life forever, despite the distance. I would, truly, walk 500 miles for them, and maybe 500 more.