Often times our mentors become our everyday heroes. I’ve had several over the years, but one in particular stands out to me. Justine Ramsey. ustine’s from New York, I’m from Georgia. We often joke we’re an unlikely pair, the yankee and the redneck. It’s only fitting that I picked a very country, country song for this post. Jokes aside, there’s a very important lyric in Randy Travis’ song that lead me to picking it. “Your heroes will help you find good in yourself.”
There’s another very important analogy the appearance of my car post-accident reminded me of. You see at first glance you might not have even realized my car was involved in an accident. If you didn’t look closely or open my trunk, the accident didn’t look that bad. That’s the thing about taking things at face value, they can be deceiving. Likewise, are we too quick to assume people are okay just because they look okay?
My mother is a lot of things. She’s quirky and unapologetically unique. She’s dedicated and hard working. She’s outspoken and at times a little annoying. Growing up she drove me insane with all her momisms. As wise as they were, they were never what I actually wanted to hear. It’s funny how those little phrases that I once deemed annoying and stupid shaped me into the person I am today.
Merriam-Webster has six different definitions for the noun friend. Not one, not two, not even four. Six different ways to define the people we refer to as friends. That’s the thing about friendships, they’re multidimensional. They’re complex and at times messy. They have such a huge impact on who we are, but do we put enough thought into choosing our friends?
PostGradMad 