forever, 21

21. Someone you love/Someone that means a lot to you.

this is my grandma. 

She's my favorite person in the whole world.

Grandma Helen is a short little Irish woman who was raised catholic and aspired to become a nun. She met my pop pop at a military ball they used to hold all the time, during some war, and they quick got married. (I wish I knew the story better.) She soon after got pregnant with her first child, Eleanor, who only lived for a short while after being born. Eleanor went straight to heaven, and later they had 4 more kids, the second oldest of them being my dad, George. After having my uncle, dad, and two aunts, she converted to the LDS gospel. She then was baptized, along with all of her children. 

My grandma is one of the most social people I have ever met! She networks through the relief society's address book like none other. She is a peacemaker and just like me, she cries very easily. For the majority of my childhood, she was my closest companion. Grandma lives with us, she has her own apartment style home in the first floor of the barn, as our family's house begins on the second floor. I would always run downstairs to run from trouble and chores, and confide in her: tell her everything about the going -ons of our crazy family upstairs. She knew about every boy I ever liked, ever since I was a toddler. She was my chauffeur and my therapist and the best, most loyal girlfriend a girl could only dream of.

I love my grandma, so so much. I think I miss her the most.

7. let's not play that game

7. Your Best Friend.

I kind of don't believe in best friends.  Hear me out.
On monday, I was reading in my marriage textbook, and I stumbled across this sentence that says "Girls tend to play more in small groups or pairs, and their lives often revolve around best-friend relationships." The simplicity of this statement kind of blew my mind, thinking about how every girl I ever met really is drawn to one specific individual at all times.  The textbook also said boys are more competitive in their communication, but I disagree, I think girls are, just in a way more complicated fashion. Girls compete for a best friend, and most of the time, yes, we're drawn to one girl and/or guy moreso than the next naturally, but I always have been uncomfortable with the term "best friend". I hate playing favorites! Yes, I've been especially close with a certain several people as I grew older, but it's unfair to the rest of the people I cherish as well to make a little list of the higher-up besties. And think about it, once you establish a best-friend relationship, don't you hold expectations for that person? I can't help but do so. And then when life goes on and you both change, the expectations are broken, because the friendship has lost its luster. Relationships grow and shrink like the waves, even those you have with blood relatives. Even the one you may keep with a boyfriend, fiance, or husband. I am the closest with Benjamin, we love each other a lot, and I'm pretty darn confident that our relationship isn't going anywhere. But I believe that in order to maintain a constant close relationship, you both have to want it and work at it, indefinitely. Ben's technically my best friend, but he's so much more than that. With different girlfriends however, that isn't a forever goal for both people, at least not in my life. I hear a lot of this term being thrown around, mostly within the band crowd at school. And I think when people claim a best friend to another normal friend, it hurts their feelings, because they can't amount to the standard of BEST for them. I mean, life can be a game a lot of the time, certainly. But in this aspect, I don't want any part of the competitiveness. Rather, I work on showing as many people as I can manage how much I appreciate having them around. And I'll be nice to the rest.