With Arms Wide Open

It's been my experience that you make two kinds of friends in your life. The first group is simply friends. People you share common interests with. You might hang out occasionally. Play a game together, go to the pool, or whatever it is you and you all do. That's cool. This group, though, isn't a group that you open up to. It's not someone you would share your deepest fears and desires with. For me, anyone I'm friends with automatically gets thrown into this group until we have some magical moment of love and friendship (sorry if that's cliche) that moves them up to the next group...

The next group doesn't really have a word to describe it; at least there isn't one I can think of. They're your friends... but they're also a lot more than that. They're the people you can go to for anything. They're the people you share your thoughts with and they don't tuck tail and run away from you screaming. For me this group is tiny. Minuscule. On the atomic level. It consists of one maybe two people. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't just meet these people and think "hey, I'd like to confide in that person whenever I need to get something off my chest." Nope. Tyler tests the water before he swims. It takes time to connect with someone on that level and build up that kind of trust.

The biggest problem is that sometimes people are afraid to open up to another person because they'll realize that they belong in the "just friends that have things interests and go to the pool together" category. Hey. S*** happens. Either way you win because if you open up to someone you'll realize that either A. they're a person you can confide in or B. you can cross them off the list.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU GO AND CONFIDE IN THE RANDOM MAN DOWN THE STREET YOU'VE NEVER MET BEFORE.

You should have established a level of trust with the people you want to confide in first. Otherwise all of your horrible little secrets aren't exposed to the world. Friends don't make secrets, but real friends break the rules for you. Right? Right.

I think it's important to know that not everyone you confide in is going to open their arms wide and just let you right on in. Been there. Tried that. Doesn't work that way. Sorry. Meeting the people that do though makes it worth it. It offers a lot of support and structure for you mentally and emotionally to know that you have those people you can just fall back on.

Hopefully you already know someone that you can trust entirely. Personally I like to put that trust in someone I'm not related to and is closer to my age. They're a lot less likely to be biased or sugar coat things for you.

Yep. That's the end of my post. Not a dynamic ending, I know, but I got lazy and I really need to go to bed.

Don't do drugs.
--Tyler