Holidays-Happy Thanksgiving.

I would like to say first and foremost Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there reading this.  This year has gone by so quickly and so much has happened and so much to be thankful for.  For me I have dealt with near tragedies, the death of my grandmother, and a Super Storm Hurricane that destroyed a portion of my town, a huge area of where I spend a lot of time, and many other surrounding areas.  Thankfully we were spared and were only minorly inconvienced.  But despite any hardships we face in life, there is always so much we can be thankful for.  A met the woman I plan on marrying, my family has been getting closer together, both of our families love each other; making us one big wonderful and happy family, and I have been making strides in both my work career and writing career. 

Over the last few years, I have had such a different perspective on life as opposed to several years ago.  Call it growing up, or maturing, or even having a deeper appreciation for the little things in life.  Regardless, something I learned over the years is that everything that has happened in your life has led you to this point in your life.  Despite any hardships or if there have been great things that happened, I say be thankful for everything in your life; the good and the bad things because both have created who you are today.

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays

Friendships

I wanted to take tonight to talk about friendships both personal and professional.  When you start out in school, you think everyone is your friend.  As you progress into your later scholastic years you either have a close circuit of friends or clique, or you are part of many groups in the confines of the school.  In college you have a new set of friends.  Some are in Fraternities or Sorrorities while others find friends through classes or school clubs.  Either way a lot of the friendships you created earlier in life have either been lost in the transitions or held together very tightly. 

In my opinion it's not until you are in the real world that you realize who your true friends are in life.  They could be current co-workers that you have known for years and spend a lot of time with.  Others could be new business associates that you come across and find common ground to start building a friendship on.  In some cases the friends you made along your journey through school are still going strong; even hundreds of miles away.

I have found that there are some people that want to be fake friends and fairweather friends.  Fairweather friends are people that come around when it is convienent for them.  Due to social media, there are now a multitude of platforms for these people to reach out and contact someone.  I myself, am one of those people where I will message people out of convience.  It's nothing to be shameful about because we all do that now.  Each day we read social status updates of people we follow or are friends with to find something we find amusing or interesting to talk about with each other.  It helps us keep up to date on people that we do or did care about and provides us topics to talk about when we decide it is the right moment.  In a way this is good and bad (but I will leave that for another topic for the future).

Onto the Fake Friends.  Fake friends are people that are around just to use others for their own selfish benefit.  They could be people that don't necessarily mean any harm but need something (advice, venting, guidance, money, or just around for the party).  I have come to know many of these people in my life.  Some were very trusted friends that got to know me pretty well, and when they got what they needed they left.  Others releaized they weren't getting what they wanted out of the friendship and decided to depart from my life as well.  Both of those are okay and I wish those people the best in their lives. 

Finally there are True Friends.  These are the people that are there for you no matter what.  They are the people that go out of their way to help you, trust you with their lives, and are always looking out for others best interest.  I can honestly say I am someone who values those traits in friends and have a good circle of close friends that I myself would trust with my life.  I may know some of them for nearly 15 years, others that I knew when I moved away, some I worked with, and others I met as of this last year. 

Regardless of who these people are, friends are the people that make every moment of life worth living.  They share in the good times and bad.  They provide inspiration and comfort.  They are the shoulder you cry on or the people you share a great laugh with.  I want to dedicate this post to all of those close friends and family that have always stood by me.


And on a side note, I would like to also post a link to my interview on the Anthony Charles Podcast this week.  I hope you all enjoy and have a great night.
http://soundcloud.com/anthonycharlesofficial/episode-20-andrew-hess-author