Crowd (Five Minute Friday)

It's Friday. Or at least the day I can write before the next Friday.  Time to stop for 5 minutes and write along with the gang. Want to join us? It's easy.
1. Set your timer. Write for 5 minutes on the prompt. No edits, no back-tracking, spell-check can be ignored. Just write.
2. Link up over here at Lisa-Jo's place.
3. This is the important rule: go visit the post of the person who linked up right before you. Read it. And leave them an encouraging note. THAT is the heart of the Five Minute Friday community. We'd love to have you be a part.

This week, we're writing about: CROWD.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a part of the "in" crowd. You know, the popular kids? The girls that have their act together? They're pretty, and smart - but not totally nerdy (I still don't know how they did that!) - and fun, and everyone wants to be with them, and be like them. And everyone LIKES them.

I had a great group of ffriends in school, and to this day a few of them are still my closest friends. The ones I call on when things are ugly. WHen I need a hug or an ear to listen - even when months go by and we haven't talked, that's where I turn for a friend first.

I went away to college (far away from home) so I could find myself. Needed to get out of my hometown. (Great place to raise a family - still is - but we;d lived there my whole life and my dad was super involved in the community so everyone knew who we were. EVERYONE.) So I wanted to go away where I didn't know a single soul. To learn who I was. Where there wasn't an in crowd, or any other clique, at least not right away. Where I wasn't already stereotyped into who I would be.

That falls into my top 3 excellent choices I've ever made in my whole life. I learned who I was, what made me tick. I found a new group of friends - a few more who now are in my closest circle of friends to this day. And I learned that it's not about being with a crowd. It's about finding the gem within the crowd - to pull it out and gather it close. To weed through the crowd and the chaos to find the ones who bring calm. The ones who block the crowd and bring the love.

Being on the outside of the crowd puts me in the center of love. Where I want to be.

Stop.