Friends/Family

I've probably wrote about this many times before but it seems I stick with the same subjects when writing any way so why break tradition now. At least where I'm from the saying is always used that blood is thicker than water when talking about being close to family and sticking by them. This post, however, is about my bonus family - those people that are your friends but so much more too - so I'll call them my bonus family. If I'm perfectly honest there are several of these people that I'm closer to than my blood related family, which isn't to say that I don't love my family or any thing. I think we some times work and wait our whole life to find those kinds of friends, or to at least find the ones that are in it for the long haul. I don't make it easy to become a friend of mine, at least I don't feel like I do, because I take a long time to open up. Maybe it's a self conscience way of testing people to see if they'll stick around. I have had to many people leave when I get close to them and open up so I try to keep my guard up to a certain degree. I have noticed lately that I am finally opening up and letting my guard down and being myself with certain people. Scares me because in the back of my mind I'm thinking what's going to happen. However, I know we're not promised tomorrow and I don't want to waste time worrying about that and miss the opportunity to spend time with people and be able to tell them what they mean to me or show them by helping them in some way. I appreciate the fact that all these people haven't given up on me, are there to encourage me and will always ask me to do stuff with them even though I may say no several times (not because I don't want to do stuff with them but it is that hard for me to say yes and open up at times). Some, actually most of them, I haven't known my whole life but only in the past seven years or so but I don't think it is about how long you've known some one that makes a friendship strong I recently found something on line that explained what a person's friendship truly meant to me in a way that I just couldn't bring myself to say to them. I think it also explains what kind of friend I want to be to others. And if by now your curiosity is getting the best of you what was on the picture, I will  finally put it to rest. This is what it said: I just wanted to say thank you. For what, you ask? Thank you for making my world a better place, thank you for taking the time to listen to my problems though you had to set aside your own....thank you for proving people still do care, thank you for being my friend... . So today I am thankful for my bonus family that have been so much more than just a friend and I think I've rambled on enough about that.