The friendships I foster are an important factor to my rich life.
Not friends who make you feel bad when you hang out together. The gee-why-does-my-house-not-look-as-good-as-theirs style of friend.
I’m talking about the friends who boost you up, refresh your attitude and help you to gain perspective on your life.
I’m a not the kind of person who has a huge number of friends. I have a few close friends and many other people whose company I enjoy. I’ve also made a number of online pals in the past few years who I consider to be friends.
My friends and I swap library movies, go for walks instead of meeting up at the gym and exchange ideas instead of gifts. But it’s not a shared interest in frugality that cements our friendships, but a shared outlook on life. We enjoy figuring out original solutions to life’s challenges; and nobody is all that interested in fashion, expensive coffee or how to attain six-pack abs.
But most importantly, I know they’re there for me. Whether it’s for a loan of a stack of magazines or an afternoon spent together during hard times. And I think they know I’m there for them as well.
My best friend from college is flying in from New Hampshire on Wednesday just to hang out with me for a few days, which I find incredibly flattering. I’m so much overwhelmed with how much I’m looking forward to her company, that I don’t even care that the forecast is for rain, rain and more rain.
My friends enrich my life in ways I cannot even express.
So I’d like to extend a huge thank you to my friends, both those I’ve known for years and those I’m just now getting to know. I would be lost without you.
How is your life affected by your friends? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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So true. Having such great friends is one of the things that makes me feel rich every day.
“The gee-why-does-my-house-not-look-as-good-as-theirs style of friend”: as I interpret this example, you are the one feeling bad about your house. I have a friendship with the opposite situation: my friend makes me feel bad because my house looks nice! Her housekeeping is much casual than mine, but my house is no showplace. Yet everytime she comes over she makes a point to tell her son to “be careful!” and “don’t drop that!” and then moans about her own home, making me wonder what I’ve done to make her so self conscious. I’m pretty sure I’ve done nothing, as the state of her house is not important to me and I don’t rave about my own housekeeping abilities. I sometimes wonder why I put effort into this friendship (this woe-is-me-you’re-so-much-luckier-than-me attitude extends to other things as well) and then feel glad that I have other friendships without this problem. Maybe someday I’ll let her go.
I’m a first time commenter and consider YOU a new online friend!
For me, good friends give my life’s tapestry its brightest colors and warmth. We can celebrate good times together, cry in the bad; I am always a better person through knowing each of them.
Anyone who could make me internally question superficial things such as housecleaning, my income or otherwise would NOT stay on the list for long…
Katy, I completely agree, friendships are one of those wonderful things in life that money can’t buy. And as life goes on we learn to hold on to the friends that enrich our lives and are there in good times and bad, and let go of the ones who don’t and aren’t. I consider this “taking care of myself”.
My friends make my life awesome! They are completely different to me, in tastes, lifestyles, everything. But we all recognise that those things don’t matter. They don’t care if I dress well, have a great income, a clean house or share their interests. They only care that I am healthy and happy and will do whatever they can to ensure it stays that way. As I do for them.
That, and they make me laugh until I cry.
Not only do my friends deeply enrich my life, but they help me save money as well. Amongst my network of friends, we routinely swap barter and give away surplus. I get clothes, childcare, homemade bread and yogurt, and an endless supply of books by swapping around with friends.
Katy, I hope you and your college pal have fun together. My sister is my best friend- I only get to see her a couple times a year and I, like you, am always shocked at how much I look forward to just being in the same room as her!
Thanks for a sweet sweet post!
I am a nurse by profession. I have made some really good friends everywhere I work. A group of us were in the same nursing graduating class 26 years ago and we are still friends now. We have supported each other through child birth, divorce, cancer, and family crisis. We all worked in ICU togeather years ago, and now we are at different places, but we still see each other and support one another. I have been very blessed. I have learned how to sew and do crafts from one of my friends who was took me under her wing when my son was in Iraq. Several of these friends have taught me how to be more frugal. We have taken trips together and studied for nursing competencies.