Saturday 28 September 2013

The Real Thing

I have a friend. She started out as somebody that I sat next to in class and 6 months later we were and are inseparable. I had a feeling when I first met her that something good was going to come of it and I kept working on it. I remember thinking at first 'she's so quiet' but I trusted my gut (because that's always right) and now you can't stop the quiet girl from talking. I won't use her real name, but I'll call her 'H' instead so you know who I'm talking about. When I think about how close we are now and how we started out, it actually still really amazes me. People have the power to amaze!
Before I met H, I was quiet. But during the first month or so, I did all of the talking (I don't know how I didn't run out of things to say) and then she began to open up. There's a quote that says something like 'if you are interested in people they will open up quite wonderfully' and that really did happen right before my eyes. It happened so quickly that I didn't even notice it, but then I knew there was no turning back. I realised that she'd began to trust me and we used to complain to each other about our jobs that we hated (we both had the same job but in a different place).
I took her to the zoo and the beach and Starbucks and pubs whilst she took me to a stage of friendship that I'd never experienced before. I had started to think that maybe I would have to change to be people's friend (which I didn't like the idea of because I've always said that I would be nothing but myself) but H turned up and she accepted the person that I really am.
All of that opening up on both of our behalf's took place over only 6 months, but now a year later and you can see that we both make each other feel wonderful. Really wonderful.
My summer was filled with H. We can chat like nobody else, honestly. The first time that we did something outside of class, we went to Starbucks and sat and talked for six and a half hours. Continuously. Not an exaggeration.
I'm at uni now and I haven't been here long at all but it seems like forever. Not having her around is really hard because it's like she's become a part of me and I feel a bit lost without her. Going from having somebody that knows me as inside out as she does for the past six months to having to make completely new friends seems like such a strange thing to have to do when I have her.
The evening that I said goodbye to her before uni was not good. For about the first three hours I put the looming goodbye at the back of my mind and just had a lovely time with her but the last hour came and the idea of the goodbye appeared again. It sprung itself upon me and I couldn't escape it. I suddenly lost my happiness and couldn't even look at her because I knew that I wouldn't see her for a while. We were in a coffee shop and all I could do was have my head in my arms on the table because I couldn't and didn't want to face it. I managed to keep myself from crying, just about, and she sat there with her hand on my arm for about twenty minutes and we didn't know what to say. Neither of us could think of anything to say to make the situation better.

We had to leave and we went outside in the dark and had such a long hug, because we both knew that we wouldn't be able to hug each other for a very long time. But she gives the best hugs and sometimes I just need one of her hugs. Her hugs are from the soul.
After the hug, we just stood there looking at each other. Remembering.
We linked arms (we do that a lot) and stood.
Her hand slid into mine and I knew that even though I was going away, my friend wasn't going anywhere. I knew that nothing would change and that at least was the comfort that I could get from what was happening.
The car got there and that was it. The time to leave had come. We hugged again and tried to smile at each other through our teary eyes and as we both started to walk away from each other, our hands slid apart and I couldn't even turn around to catch one last glimpse of my friend. I couldn't face seeing her walk away from me. The car was only ten feet away but I didn't even make it to the car before the tears were flowing and it was hard to breathe. It was that really horrific crying that hurts your chest and you can't stop. I cried continuously for two hours because I couldn't imagine being without her.
She text me saying 'i'm such a wreck' and I was so much of a mess that I couldn't actually read her text through the tears that kept filling up my eyes. My eyes stung and my chest hurt. I felt like she had been taken away from me.

But what really matters is that I've found somebody that likes me for who I really am and that I met her in a place and time that I didn't expect. So if there's somebody out there or you find somebody that truly accepts you, don't let them pass you by because those people are hard to find and might not come around again for a while. It feels wonderful when you find that person and you don't want to miss out on that wonderfulness do you?

American Honey

Ok so Lady Antebellum are probably my favourite band ever ever ever. Considering that most people haven't actually heard of them, I think I've done quite well to discover them. When people ask me examples of music that I like and I say Lady Antebellum, I get the reply of 'what who's she?' - but because she is not a she I might start sticking a post-it on my forehead that's says 'before you ask, LADY ANTEBELLUM IS NOT A SHE'. If you haven't listened to Lady A before then you really need to, like really need to! They're a good bit of country and from them I guarantee that before you even realise it, you'll be youtubing other people (Kacey Musgraves is great, but more on her another time).
They're not one of those annoying groups that write in metaphors and clichés but instead their songs are raw and honest and true. There's one particular song called 'As You Turn Away' and oh my is this an emotional song. Hillary's voice is hardly auto tuned and because of the heart breaking lyrics, it makes it sound so raw and emotional - I love it just for the honesty that you can hear in her voice (you can almost hear it break).
When people are talking about their favourite bands and singers, have you noticed how they always say *snobby uppity voice* 'oh you can always relate to them' and I always just laughed. But I discovered Lady Antebellum and I was like hold on a minute, you really can relate. I think part of that is because they're not just singing about love but growing up and friends and teenage love - all of which we will have, or will experience at some point.
I saw Lady A last July and I have to say (excuse the biased opinion) they were absolutely FANTASTIC. Wonderful actually. Hillary is an amazing singer, Charles has such a stage presence and Dave can rock a guitar like nobody else. I came out of that concert and I actually felt like I was in love. I don't know how that's possible from listening to songs that I already knew, but I guess it's probably because of the emotion that they pour into those songs. The energy felt so real that I wanted to reach out and take some of their emotion and put it away in my pocket for a while.
'Wanted You More' was epic.
If you haven't heard any of Lady A's songs before, you're probably wondering what relevance the title 'American Honey' has to anything. Well 'American Honey' is just a song that you'll have to listen to, because I could go on forever about how great and poetic it is but no words will really do it justice, so trust me on this and just go and listen to it! Now!

I've just started educating my friend on the greatness of Lady Antebellum so here's a few song suggestions for you too!
Dancin' Away With My Heart - there's only one word for this: magic
As You Turn Away - raw and painfully heartbreaking
Long Teenage Goodbye - 'we drug out those summer nights for a long teenage goodbye'
Friday Night - it will make you want to be somebody's Friday night
Goodbye Town - I've had the same experience of feeling lost in a town when somebody's not there
Perfect Day - it does sound like a perfect day
Lookin' For A Good Time - this song was incredible at the concert
It Ain't Pretty - probably even more heartbreaking than As You Turn Away (I cried the first time that I heard it)
Need You Now - come on, everybody must know this song

All of the ones above are my favourites from all three albums and it was hard to narrow my faves down to a few! What are yours? It's harder than you think!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi!

Aloha! This is just a blog about me and the things that I like. I think I probably like more unconventional things but who wants to be the same as everybody else eh? I hope you enjoy reading about the wacky things that summarise me!