You always hold your head up high

What do you think of when you think of an idol or role model? Your parents or grandparents or favorite artist or musician? I have had a few including my favorite musicians and cousin, but the one who is closest to me personally and one of the biggest influences on me in the past two years is my best friend.

She doesn't just love what she does, she LOVES it. She talks about the things she loves a lot, but not in an obsessive annoying way. It's an adoring way with passion, like it's the only thing in the world that matters. She doubts herself a lot and says she wants to give up, but I know she never will because deep down she loves it too much. She loves and gets super excited about a lot of little things too like rabbits, non-crappy hummus, dinosaurs, feeding the king, liking southwest airlines on facebook, writing in her blog even though she deletes it a lot. She has gone through a lot of shit with her family and them not being there for her 100%. She has been making her own money since she was in high school and not relying on other people all the time. And might I say for every time she has said she wants to give up, there are another five times she says she loves it to make up for it. She goes on adventures like waterfall hunting, bonfire making, and climbing on rafters high up in the ceiling of music halls. Oh yeah, and taco bell in Pennsylvania. She also was strong enough to make the final decision to cut off all connections with a guy who screwed her over. This was something I needed to do at the same point in my life and I did... a few weeks after she did it. I don't think I would've found the self discipline to do it if I didn't have her as an inspiration. If she can do it, I can is what I thought to myself. And several months later she talked to him in person before he left. A few weeks after that I did the same thing.

Half of the things I know about and have learned to love myself whether it be The Killers or contra dancing or mushroom and spinach omelets are all things I would not have ever known about and come to love if it wasn't for her. Honestly, so many things that I do I feel are somehow a reflection of her. People will tell me they love the song I just played on my radio show, but really she is the reason I love it. Or the earrings I wear, but she made those. And even personal interests, I will tell people that I know about these things because of her.

I don't mean to sound totally sappy and weird here but in all honesty, my best friend is somebody that I look up to with great admiration and pride in. Probably more so than my favorite bands who have been my idols for the past six years. I've never met anybody like her with her passion and love for things like music education and contra dancing and working with kids with disabilities. Hearing her stories and watching her go through things as they happen only make me admire her even more. There are times when I get jealous of her because I want to be like her. But it's all with love because Chelsea, I don't know if I've ever told you this but in the past year you have become my main inspirations and idol in my life. The day that we got into a fight and almost stopped being friends my heart broke. Just thinking about it upsets me. I don't want that day to ever come. Neither of us are getting out of this friendship alive.