What Friends Are For

I was standing there in my tiny Umbro basketball shorts, Nike high top sneakers, orange cotton jersey not really knowing why I was on a basketball court. I mean I was the shortest kid in the 1st grade.... that's including the girls. I think the best part though was that my hair was artistically cut into a rat tail. Yep, I said it. Somewhere around my 5th- 7th year on this earth I decided and my parents allowed me to sport the vintage rat tail. Hold on. Before this gets out of hand.... it wasn't that long of a rat tail. Just an extension of a reverse widows peak. I was starting a revolution.

Now I can't remember what childhood epiphany made me want a rat tail. It might have been too many episodes of Walker Texas Ranger or maybe it was just an omen of the years to come. But I also can't remember why eventually I got rid of it (believe me, it was short lived). My theory is that because eventually one of my friends made fun of it. So in my mind it went from being cool to something people don't do. The rat tail is just an example used for dramatic and humbling purposes. I bet though, over the years there have been a lot of habits, styles, and choices that were highly influenced by my friends. I condone this.

These days, now that I have quit ordering a toy with my McDonalds and am fully confident puberty has left its mark, (still waiting on that whole "growth spurt" thing they always talked about by the way) I certainly don't base my actions on other people's thoughts/opinions. However, I think that one of the biggest things that friends are for is to call you out on life. So if you're the kind of person that gets offended when your friends tell you that you're a messy person or that you're outfit makes you look gay or that you eat too much, you should probably get over yourself. How many times in your life have strangers pointed out to you the flaws in your life? Right. Strangers are not supposed to, the people you like the most are.

So don't get upset when your friends speak their minds about your short comings (for me it was my height. Get it? I'm short.) Simply thank them for pointing out the areas that need improvement. Because without criticism, we would all think too highly of ourselves. Tracey Lawrence has a song "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" where he talks about all the qualities that your real friends should have. Great tune. But really, I find out who my friends are based upon how honest they are with how much I suck sometimes.

So to crystalize this idea: Take crap from your friends with a smile. And I don't know exactly which one of you it was, but thank you for telling me that humans don't do rat tails. Who knows which carnival I'd be working at had you kept to yourself.

Now there are a ton of different aspects of what makes your posse, amigos, gangstas, brosephs, homies, friends so great. I just highlighted one. I hope you use the commenting forum to share these qualities with the blogging world.

New in my life: My half birthday is in 11 days. Please send all cards, cookies, travelers checks, and full body shots to my current address.

Keep smilin'

JM