To The People We Can Call Our Home

Home.

As we grow older, “home” starts to become people we invest our hearts in, rather than the four walls and roof we grew up under.

Throughout our lifetime, we have come across many kinds of people who have come to mean many things to us. Some are people who have proven to be friends for life, some come by for a season, some prove to be otherwise, while some end up leaving – either for reasons we are able or unable to comprehend.

As we grow older, we become more skeptical of the people around us, their actions, and we doubt acts of kindness as well. All of us have had our fair share of being broken; not being able to comprehend the feeling in our chest when something has pained us.

As we grow older, our circle of friends, or rather the people we show our genuine selves to, becomes smaller. When the going gets tough, the true colors of the people in our lives will be shown. Will they stay with you when you feel like you amount to nothing; or were they there all along for a share of the glory?

But this goes out to the people in our lives that we can call “home,” the people that have come to matter most.

If no one has told you this today, this week, or recently, this is our gratitude to you. Thank you for existing.

Thank you for being present. Not many people will actively choose to stick around for the side of us that isn’t cheerful or fun. Thank you for being there in the silence, and understanding that sometimes just being listened to is assurance enough.

Thank you for staying; staying even when we allow the storms within us to overwhelm us. When the waves crash over us and we are desperately trying to keep our head above the waters, you see through to them and offer a hand to help lift us back up again.

Thank you for loving me. Loving me on the days where I feel unworthy, where I feel trapped in a flurry of emotions that I am unable to explain, where I feel cornered with the flashbacks going through my mind. That despite how much of a freak we can sometimes feel, you choose to love and understand instead that we are all on our own journey of getting to who we are meant to be.

Thank you for believing in me, even more than I believe in my own self. Thank you for calling me out on the irrationally high standards I put myself up to sometimes, for being honest without ever being mean, for encouraging me in ways you might not have even realized.

Thank you for being unapologetically yourselves. Seeing how comfortable you are with who you are has inspired me more to embrace who I am. I am not perfect; in fact, I am still working on being the best version of myself. Thank you gently pushing me bit by bit to aim for greater heights, and yet still being quietly supportive till I get there.

Thank you for being patient with me. Despite catching glimpses of my fears, anxiety, and hurt, you’re still willing to stay for hours on the phone listening to our rants on God knows what. Thank you for the hugs, the affirmations, all in the efforts to calm me down. Thank you for sticking by me through the tears, the rage, and for the days where I struggle to breathe.

Thank you for seeing past my strong exterior; and knowing that although I strive to be a rock for others, there are times when I feel I’m unable to even hold my own head up. That despite my weaknesses, you choose to see beauty instead of scorning them.

We don’t say this enough but thank you for being in our lives.

Thank you for being my home,

And I hope that I’ve been there for you as much as you have been there for me.