Finding myself

Today I went to a friends missionary farewell. He talked a lot. It was really nice. At one point he was talking about being yourself without letting other people tell you what you are. I took a look around and saw some of my closest friends. All of us are very different. The beautiful thing is we look different, we act different, we are each individually different. Yet even as weird as any of them can be, I know that they are my friends. I value each one for different reasons. It is the differences that make it a pleasure to have friends. I'm glad I can say that I have a group of friends that don't pretend to be something other than themselves. And I'm glad that they don't try to make me into something that isn't me. At the farewell I was able to look around and see that I am who I want to be and I still have friends.