friends with benefits.

i will give full credit to my friend kaitlin schluter for this concept. but now i'm running with it.

christmas break was so great for many different reasons. for possibly the first time ever, i can honestly say that being with my family was the greatest part about the break. i mean don't get me wrong, i've always loved that part of breaks but i don't think i ever appreciated them above friends and the time off like i did this break.
but as i rode the plane back down to apu, i reflected on the break for a bit.  i have tried to be more self conscious of my feelings / emotions / touchy feely stuff this past year as a sort of emotional intelligence.  and when i take inventory for those emotions, i try to determine what brought it about.  honestly an incredibly telling project about what fills me up and gives me more hp (to put it in pokemon terms).
but i realized that the friends i have in portland, including but not limited to my besties, are friends with benefits.  i came into break tired and worn out from an academically and even emotionally taxing semester. i'm not going for the pity party because i was obviously still functioning but i was just tired.  but hanging out with friends from home and having intimate conversations gave me more energy and life than all of the nights of sleep combined.
so if i have any encouragement, it is this: that you find what and who gives you life so that you may turn and pour that life into others.  i know that you have allowed me to come back to apu and be ready to pour my life into academics, young life and my friends here.