Sometimes You Have to be a Little Selfish

I've talked about the importance of girlfriends before on this blog, but over the last few weeks, I've definitely found that it doesn't have to be good girlfriends so much as good people that you surround yourself with that make all the difference in your quality of life. You know, the kinds of people who text you good luck on the day of your interview and then text you later on to see how it went. The friends who randomly call to take you out for dinner and drinks when they know you're having a rough week. The people who challenge you to better yourself and become the best possible you there is. Those are the kind of people that you need in your life.

I've said it before and I will say it again. I will always go for quality over quantity where friends are concerned. I'm long past the days where I feel like I need to have a ton of friends in order to feel like I'm popular or have accomplished something. I am fully aware that I have many accomplishments to be proud of and people in my life to be thankful for. I don't need a million Instagram or Twitter followers to feel important. For a long time, I did feel like I needed those things; I needed to be well liked in order to succeed. I felt like if I didn't have a lot of people around then it meant that I wasn't cool enough or funny enough or smart enough. I allowed a lot of people into my life who brought a whole lot of negativity and bullish*t with them and it was a huge mistake. I think that being an adult is coming to grips with that and dealing with it and now I am perfectly content with the amazing group I've surrounded myself with.

I went out for drinks with a friend last week and he commented that since he'd seen me last, I had done a complete 180 in my attitude. I started to say it was because I'm not at a job I hate anymore and I'm taking time for myself to do things that make me happy, like getting a pedicure but then I actually stopped to think about it. I genuinely believe that is because over the last few months, I've slowly but surely weeded out the people in my life who were bringing drama and not making me happy. I graduated from high school an entire year early because I was so tired of the drama that manifests itself around teenagers, no way I was going to continue to let that rule my 22 year old life. I had to make some major changes and kicking those people out of my life was a great first step.

At first I felt like that sounded terrible, but it's your responsibility to make your life what you want, not anyone else's. In that same vein, if you allow other people to track their drama and negativity through your life, you are just as at fault as they are. I had to learn that the hard way.Luckily for me, the very last one made their exit this week when she asked me to step down as a bridesmaid. The amount of drama that surrounded that wedding was ridiculous and I was thrilled to be rid of it. Now I can enjoy myself this weekend rather than spending it with people I can't stand and dealing with drama that I shouldn't have to. And you shouldn't either.