to my beloved BAs…

First, I need to apologize for how long it has taken me to blog again… On December 19^th, I broke my hand while dancing in my room… of course I was jamming to a Taylor Swift song. Since then, I have had a hard time typing but I’ve finally gotten used to the feeling. Second, I had two different ideas for this post and one was supposed to be posted on Christmas Day as a little something for my family; however, I’ve decided to keep that to myself for a little while longer. Instead, this post is about seven girls who have become incredibly important to me in a very short period of time…

After joining groups on Facebook and reading through different posts, I’ve noticed that a common topic is friendships and how to decide whether or not to tell people about our birth defect. I know that everyone is different and some friends aren’t the best to confide in. However, from my experiences I’ve realized that telling all of my friends about my medical obstacles was one of the greatest decisions I could have made. I have never felt so loved and supported as I do now with all of my friends knowing everything and being there for me completely.

When I came to James Madison University, I was blessed to become a part of the official dance team, the Dukettes. I can honestly say that making this team has been one of the greatest things to happen to me. I have created more memories during my year and a half with my teammates than I did in the first 17 years of my life and I can never express how thankful I am for that.

More specifically, dance team introduced me to seven girls my age who have quickly become my best friends. I never thought it was possible for eight girls to come together and all get along; however, I can now say that it is 100% possible and it’s one of the most amazing things.

When talking about college with my parents, a question that always came up was “Are you going to tell people about your birth defect, how many people are you going to tell?” At the time, I said that I wasn’t going to tell many people, but that quickly changed after meeting the dance team. I remember the very first time I had to do my medical stuff around the team, which happened to be the second day I had met any of them, and they let me have my privacy but asked questions through the door and I was immediately comfortable with sharing everything with them. I’ve never actually expressed how amazing that was for me. I’ve never actually said how thankful I am for them giving me that experience. I’ve never actually told them how they are part of the reason why I am able to be so open about my health. They are the reason I am here today writing this blog, they are the reason I even started my blog in the first place— they gave me the confidence to let myself be vulnerable and I will forever be grateful.

During the 2016 snowpocalypse, all of the sophomores came to our apartment (five of us already live together) and we spent four days snowed in together. You would think that maybe we would get tired of each other, but we all ended up having the greatest time and I think we all genuinely missed each other when everyone went home. One of the nights, I found myself sitting back and looking around the room, looking at the girls who have given me the greatest two years of my life. In that moment, I realized how important every single one of them is to me and how without them, I would be nowhere close to where I am right now.

To my sophomores… thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for the times where we are all so stressed and just scream then sit and say one thing that we are looking forward to. Thank you for loving my toothless smile. Thank you for our pizza parties. Thank you for bringing me breakfast in bed after bad days. Thank you for having Thursday night dance parties with me.Thank you for letting me sing Taylor Swift and One Direction and Halsey at the top of my lungs (even though we all know I’m breaking each of your eardrums). Thank you for accepting me for all of my weird quirks. Thank you for being the greatest friends any girl could ever have.