Respect

I can think of a few people to write this about, but the one that calls out to me the most is my best friend.

She comes from a very different background than me (She's from a family of eight who have moved more times than I know, her most current home being a cabin 40 minutes out of town with an outhouse and no electricity. I, on the other hand, lived in a regular house in town.) and we have some very different interests (She would rather bake a cake than get drunk.), yet we are united by one binding force. Our extraordinary weirdness.

In our small town, if you wanted to have fun, you needed to get creative. We've gotten pulled over for disturbing the peace and kicked out of the grocery store more times than I can count, and have spent many a night cruising around on top of her Jeep. She lived with me for almost my entire senior year, and every time I go back home.

Her life has been an extremely chaotic one, and things have happened to her that would surely cripple anyone else. While she is aware of this, she prefers just to laugh at all of it, an occasional ladylike snort thrown in. We don't often talk about the rough stuff, but when we do, it always amazes me how strong and optimistic she is. Without knowing it, she's taught me that no matter what, someone has it worse than you, and not to care what people think. Before I met her, I never thought of myself as someone who based their lives on what other people would think, yet after all the strange stuff we've accomplished, I can confidently say I am very rarely embarrassed.