Why I love My Friends.

I have met so many incredible people since moving. The girls at my school have changed my life in more ways then they can even imagine. I recently was talking with my mother about the fact that my college friends are, on a whole, better friends then I have ever had. While I was musing about the reasons this could be, I realized that I had more of a southern up bringing than my western neighbors. This probably stems from the fact that my parents both had southern upbringings by their steel magnolia mothers!

Growing up in my house, please and thank-you's were required as well as the "no thank you bite." I was expected to call other people's parents Mr. and Mrs. (it really bothered my mother when my young friends referred to her by her first name). We went to church every sunday, and had to dress up and pay attention. We attended plays and symphony concerts and could never have sleepover's two nights in a row. Now, when I count my blessings, I count my family extra times. We have had the best of times and some pretty low moments too, but we have always been their for each other. Just because my parents were sticklers for manners in no way means that we were short on fun in my home, but I will save those stories for another day. So back to reason #1 why I love my southern friends....

1. Southern Hospitality: Being so far away from home, I thought that I would spend many weekends at school while everyone else traveled to their homes and families only a couple hours away. How wrong I was! I have been welcomed into so many homes (and families... I call my roommate's parents mom and dad!). I have spent long weekends in North Carolina where E's mother absolutely made me swear on my life I would bring my laundry to their house. She was horrified at the idea of me wasting money just to do it at school! I've spent a spring break at a friends house and the first time I met her parents was when I pulled up to their driveway. I stayed a summer with a family in Kentucky, and I am now their "rent-a-daughter." I even went with E to visit some old friends of hers and I was immediately part of the gang.



So here's to all my southern friends who have welcomed me not just into their homes, but also to the friends from all over who have welcomed me with classy hospitality into their lives. Hope that I can convince them all to venture out to the west so I can repay just a small portion of the generosity that I have encountered :). xx.