Friendship

Saturday's conference was absolutely incredible. At first, I was a little hesitant because I knew the chances of women my age attending were slim-to-none. Although that little fact turned true, I met some absolutely amazing and inspiring women and contributed to highly intellectual and motivating conversations all day.

It was refreshing, recharging and re-motivating.

The most important topic I gleaned from the conference was how crucial it is to find a mentor-- a friend in your life that will look at you and tell you the honest-to-God truth. A friend who isn't afraid to sugar coat the truth to save your vanity but will unleash the most ruthless of criticisms with a heart full of love and support and a shoulder ready to catch your tears.

How many of us honestly have a friend like that now?

I've had friends like that in the past but since we're in such a huge transition phase right now (my mentor moved to PA)... it's hard to maintain the strong friendships we had in high school and college. We're all starting new adventures: marriage; graduate school; first real job; moving to a new state or home; or a combination of the above. And though the bonds of friendship will always be strong and distance does make the heart grow fonder, the fact that we're absent from our best friends makes it nearly impossible to stay up to date and truthful. Although you're excited to start your new adventure, do you have just a twinge of homesickness for the way things were? Or do you feel just a little bit more alone because you've diverged on an entirely new and foreign path?

I do. I feel anxious, lonely, excited and just plain scared. At the meeting, I realized that the only mentor I have is my mother. Which is not a bad thing at all because I have learned invaluable lessons from her while having the assurance of a mother's love to guide me back to the right path, even if it does require a few more mascara stains on my bathroom and closet floors. I need a girl-friend around my age where the two-way street of loving criticism runs both ways. Yet, with all these changes arising in all of our lives, I think I will have to wait until the dust settles and we all achieve a slightly stronger grasp on our newly chaotic lives... whenever that happens :)

Although Chad is my best friend and life partner, he can not possibly understand all the emotion driven rampages of the female brain and quite frankly, I don't want him to. There's a reason God made both women and men... so that we can be different but complement and motivate each other through those differences.

Anyway, if you get one thing out of this post: find your mentor. If you have one already, hold on to her. If you don't, good luck! I'll be searching with you :)

Check ya later y'all :)