Life as Amber knows it

Did you know that National Best Friends Day is this weekend?

I’m sorry, what did you just say? It’s actually not until June??!!? Well shit, that means my plans for the weekend are over! Cancel every thing my best friend and I have lined up, because now we have to wait until June! I can’t believe this happened to me!!! I mean, one of us saw this meme that said it was this weekend, and we made plans dammit!

Okay that last paragraph is total bullshit. I know National Best Friends Day actually doesn’t happen until June 8. And I’m still hangin’ with my bestie this weekend, and we’re still celebrating our friendship for the same reason I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day and never will.

If you need a national holiday to celebrate those you love in your life, you’re an asshole (but by all means, please still celebrate the damn good national holidays like National Guacamole Day, National Pancake Day, Free Comic Book Day, and Eat Breakfast for Dinner Day).

I’ve never been a fan of Valentine’s Day. The idea that you only go all out on that day just chaps my ass. Why wait? I’m not saying go balls to the wall day in and day out, but why not, just for the sake of doing it, pick some random day and celebrate the hell out of someone you love, including yourself? Why do we wait until something larger happens (a national holiday, an illness, a death) to start telling those we love how we feel? Why not do it just for the hell of it? Why do we only celebrate ourselves on the day we were born?

It’s coming up on five months since I lost my father. And if his life and death taught me anything, it’s that life is far too short to worry about the small things and not enjoy the time we have on this earth, not embrace and celebrate the time we have with those who make our lives beautiful and give us the chance to be who we truly are, good or bad.

So I’m celebrating my best friend this weekend, not because we thought it was a national holiday, but because I don’t say often enough how much they mean to me.

To my best friend: Thank you for being in my life. Thank you for actually unconditionally loving me. Thank you for being the voice of reason when my mind goes on a nineteen hour road trip. Thank you for trusting me with your feelings, both good and bad. Thank you for all the laughs, the bottles of wines killed, the long-ass talks. Thank you for being a shelter in the storm of hurt my life has been. Thank you for teaching me how to love myself and teaching me to see myself through kinder eyes. Thank you for finding my love of ranch dressing adorable. Thank you for not being an asshole in a world filled with them. Thank you for trusting me with your thoughts. Thank you for ending every fight with a hug and an “I love you.”

Just thank you for every single wonderful, beautiful, crazy, colorful, loud, quiet, and miraculous moment you’ve brought to my life. I love you.

Amber Jerome~Norrgard