In 27 years, I have never felt as thankful for friends as I do at this very moment. If you were to ask my parents to tell you something about my childhood, they would undoubtedly tell you that I always had someone sleeping over on any given night of the week. Although I have always had friends, I have never had any quite like my current batch of forever friends.

As a program support coordinator, I see dozens of programs on a regular basis, and hear many girls talk about their friendships or lack thereof. Every time I hear a girl share a story about a conflict or a success, I take a moment and think about how grateful I am to have my friends. As we mature, we encounter many people, acquire acquaintances and peers alike, however, when friends emerge from the group our lives change.

Because many program partners choose to offer Work It Out, our conflict and anti-bullying program, in the fall, I’ve had many “ah ha” moments since August that really hit home. When 6-8 year-old girls describe Miss Goodfriend, I realized they are describing my friends. I have friends that are smart, nice to me, listen to me, care about me, play with me, include me, and over all respect me. How lucky am I?
When I began to think back and note how each of these women came into my life, I realized that they were almost all by chance, and by exemplifying the great characteristics of a good friend our friendships were born. It is true, friendship really is that easy.

We meet people everyday; however, do we ever really consider the fact that the new people we encounter could potentially be a life long friend? Working with girls inspires me to consider that very question. When girls ask me, “Miss Adrianne, do you do this stuff?” my response is always, “Yes, I try to be a good friend all the time.”