The People In My Corner

My first friend, really, is my older sister. Her friends became my friends before I even had a say in the matter. A few of them I've grown so close to that I stay over at their places, travel with them, have the kind of deep conversations that don't need an appointment. I see them as extra older sisters, and I love how they look out for me, how they let me be "aburo," the younger one, the one who gets looked after.

My own friendships, the ones I built myself, cut across different spaces and different seasons of my life. But one thing has stayed consistent through all of them: I am loved. I have help. I have shoulders to cry on. Each friendship is distinct, shaped by whoever is in it and whatever season we found each other in, and somehow it all works exactly as it should.

I love my friends. They have carried different parts of me at different times, and I've carried parts of them too. It isn't the ones we talk about publicly or post about. It's a quiet knowing that they are there.

The ones who will always pay for food when I have an event.

The ones who want to hang clothes and play sales assistant the moment there's a pop-up or a launch.

The ones who have taught me softness simply by being soft around me.

The ones who've made me family, the kind of family that hands you their dad's car to drive around all year.

The ones who open their homes to me, big or small, no questions asked.

The ones who carried me through a season of heartbreak, who followed me to places neither of us had any real reason to be, just because I needed someone there.

The ones who show up to help plan and execute my mom's birthday like it's their own.

The ones who roll up their sleeves for a store renovation because hiring an interior designer simply isn't an option right now.

The ones from childhood who still look out for me, who I can be completely, unfiltered me around.

The ones who take the time to sit with me and talk business strategy.

The ones who visit as often as they possibly can, just to be present.

They are my true testimony. If they never did a thing for me again, I will always love them.

I'm grateful. Not only am I loved by God, but He also gifted me with people who love me deeply. That, to me, is one of the clearest ways His love shows up: through the people He puts in my corner.

For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:10