Becca Anderson - Friendship Isnt a Big Thing, Its a Million Little Things: The Art of Female Friendship (Affirmations, Gift for Best Friend)

Friendship

Isn t a Big Thing
It s a Million Little Things

Friendship Isnt a Big Thing
Its a Million Little Things

The Art of Female Friendship

Becca Anderson

Coral Gables

Copyright 2019 by Becca Anderson.

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design: Elina Diaz

Layout Design: Jermaine Lau and Elina Diaz

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Friendship Isnt a Big ThingIts a Million Little Things: The Art of Female Friendship

Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN:(p) 978-1-64250-067-7 (e) 978-1-64250-068-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019944130

BISAC category code: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Friendship

Printed in the United States of America

This book is for my beloved friends Abby, Beth, Leslie, Lillian, Maria, Nancy, and Nina who have been the rudders of my life. You are amazing, incredible, brilliant women, and I will love you forever.

Table of Contents

Introduction

As I write this, I am looking forward to a girlfriends night out tomorrow evening. Even though we are no longer twentysomethings dancing into the wee hours every weekend, we still get together regularly. Time spent with each other is absolutely essential. Truth be told, it is a combination of group therapy, the latest news, sharing helpful tips and recipes, and a whole lot of what we call processing. We process the state of the world, our jobs, and our relationships. This week, well be featuring the Ex Files. One of my dearest friends has a crazy ex-husband who is a rage texter. And now he has a crazy new girlfriend who completely loses it if any photos of the good old days show up on Facebook or Instagram. Such is life in the twenty-first century where you not only have to plot a course through each day of our over-busy schedules, but also have to navigate the sometimes-tricky waters of social media.

Whats a girl to do?

I say we stick with the friends who know us best and see us through all the ups and downs of life; I have always said that our friends are some of the great loves of our lives. My friends have seen me through everything, from crushes and fashion disasters to shared vacations and long, lazy days of sheer delight. They are also there when the chips are down. I have weathered breakups, makeups, financial woes, career crises, and everything in between, thanks to my good friends. Good friends make the world go round, so treasure yours, dear reader, and you will reap the benefits tenfold.

In closing, I remind you of the wise words of this memorable wild woman:

Its the friends you can call up at
4 a.m. that matter.

Marlene Dietrich

Chapter One

I remember my first good friend. I met her in the first week of first grade, and we are still friends today. We could not be more opposite, but, for whatever reason, Abby and I just clicked. We literally saw each other through every stage of life: awkward braces phases, first crushes and first dates, first heartbreaks, homecoming, and prom. I was also a bridesmaid at her wedding. Abby was a child of divorce, and we stayed at each others houses at least a couple of nights a week. When her father was on dad duty for the weekends, I went trooping along, and went trout fishing and camping with her and her dad, who was a proper Hemingway-esque gentleman. He was also the high school principal and didnt let us get away with a single thing but also instilled a love of literature and nature, as well as stressed the importance of being a life-long learner. Abbys mom was really fun and seemed so glamorous to me. Like Abby, her mom was gorgeous, whip-smart, and gregarious. I can say that I honestly felt like a member of the family and very loved and accepted. Friends are the family we choose, and Abby is truly my sister from another mother.

I bet you have such special sisterly women in your life. Hold on tight and never let them go.

LYLAS! (Love Ya Like A Sister!)

If you have two friends in your lifetime, youre lucky. If you have one good friend, youre more than lucky.

S.E. Hinton

She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.

Toni Morrison

Give me one friend, just one, who meets the needs of all my varying moods.

Esther M. Clark

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of ones self, the very meaning of ones soul.

Edith Wharton

One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about. We never needed best friend gear because I guess with real friends you dont have to make it official. It just is.

Mindy Kaling

Your best friend can send your spirits soaring one moment and crush you with a word or gesture the next.

Colette McBeth

Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.

Sarah Dessen

The biggest ingredient in a best friend is someone whose actions you respect and who you can truly be yourself around.

Renee Olstead

When you meet your best friend in real life, or you meet your soulmate, you just know it, and you feel it.

Lili Reinhart

The idea of losing your best friend, basically, is the worst thing in world.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.

Jane Austen

A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

As we sail through life towards death, bound unto the same portheaven,Friend, what years could us divide?

Dinah Craik

A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart.

Kathleen Frove

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

Jennifer Aniston

Its not that diamonds are a girls best friend, but its your best friends who are your diamonds.

Gina Barreca

When you feel someone elses pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them.

Ann Brashares

Chapter Two

Husbands and boyfriends are nice accessories, but girlfriends are the essential must-haves of life. Its our gal pals who get us through both good times and bad. The course of my life has been charted over coffee with the girls, new plans made over a margarita (or two), and many a late-night phone call dedicated to the topic of love. Who else do we turn to for the best advice, gossip, and fashion tips? There are many different aspects of friendshipfrom sharing secrets to sharing tears, and from being each others cheerleaders to comforting one another with hugs and good advice. I once had such a bad breakup that my friend Leslie came over, scooped me up, and installed me in her spare bedroom, where I curled up into a fetal position for days. I was in such bad shape that I couldnt even speak, but she was there for me and surrounded me with a secure blanket of unconditional love and understanding. No judgment; just support. After a few days, I crawled out of my cocoon. Not exactly a butterfly, but I was wiser, and I learned something far more important than any lesson about the travails of romance. I learned that the bonds of true friendship are stronger than anything. For better or worse, your friends are there for you when you need them.