Friends: Life's Sparkling Colors

A couple days back, I received a letter from a friend. The letter contained one of the most thoughtful messages that I myself have ever received. Since the day that I opened the letter, I've contemplated the concept of friendship and the impact that each one of my friends has had on my life. The memories that were made at dances, late-night bonfires, trips to cities, hikes, and beautiful night-sky river walks. The times that I have had with friends are the times that I will forever cherish. Friendships shape the lives of each one of us. They shape our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions; they shape our dreams and aspirations. They provide color and luminosity to life and they provide sparkles and flashes of joy that one would never experience without them. Thus, I call friends, "Life's Sparkling Colors". The colors and splatters that paint the canvas of life and all its intricacies. So I dedicate the rest of this blog post to pictures and quotes of friendship. To all those friends that have made an impact on my life and whose memories I will forever cherish in my heart. Thank you for providing life its sparkling colors and its array of laughs, tears, smiles. Thank you for being one of the greatest gifts of life: a friend.

"The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it."  - Hubert H. Humphrey

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." - Thomas Aquinas

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings." - Henry David Thoreau

"A friend is what the heart needs all the time." - Henry Van Dyke

Be the greatest friend you can be to everyone. Be there to support them when they need it. Be there to comfort them when they're broken. Be there to talk to them when they're in distress. Be there to mentor them when they follow their journeys. Be there to encourage them when they need it the most. But most of all, be there with them because they are your friend.

Friends, thank you for inspiring me, loving me, guiding me, laughing with me (and at me), crying with me, comforting me, and being there for me. I am forever indebted to all you have done to make my life so colorful and my future so bright. Thank you.