Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The friends who make your world

Best of friends
Jennifer, Cate, Amy, Lila, Kristen, Alison, me, Lisa
July was a whirlwind of activity — the beginning of summer often is — so I took my time posting about Alaska. I’m still playing catch-up.

Immediately after returning to Boston, we had family staying with us from Norway, I spent a weekend in Vermont, and then got busy with summer activities. I fell out of a running routine, but more on that later.

First things first — I want to jump back to the day I landed in Boston after 16 hours of traveling from Alaska. (Anchorage to Seattle to Detroit, (on a red eye), and eventually to Boston.

The end of my Alaska trip was emotionally draining relative to Julia and the unsettled feeling she left me with. I was angry, disappointed, and sad, but had no regrets about ending our friendship. Still, I was exhausted from all of it.

I left Anchorage on a Monday morning, with several stops ahead in my itinerary, (aka the cheapest flights). I didn’t get much sleep, but there were no delays and the flights were easy.

When I landed in Boston early on a Tuesday, with plans to take the train and bus from Logan to Swampscott, I was shocked when I found Amy waiting for me in baggage claim, with Jennifer waiting in the car, curbside, with coffee! Oh my god, I cried. I couldn’t help it. I cried. I was just so shocked to see them.

(They had texted Will for my flight info and even asked him how I take my coffee. Ohmigosh, I’m still in disbelief.)

After all of the duplicity that transpired with Julia during race weekend, TRUE FRIENDS came through and picked me up, literally and figuratively. I’m so humbly grateful to both of them. They are the best, and I’m so damn lucky to have genuine friends in my life — Amy, Jennifer,  Lila, Alison, Cate, Kristen, and Lisa. (Ingrid, too.) Damn lucky.

“Wherever you are, it is your friends who make your world.” (William James)