Surround Yourself with the Best People

Happy Thursday!

This week was so very busy and it didn’t help that I took some time off on Tuesday and Thursday.  However, that time was absolutely priceless and I had two amazing adventures.  Let me share...

The first, Tuesday, October 17, I had two friends come up to Lincoln.  Now what is special is these are two of my oldest friends … 40+ year old friendships.  Julia flew in from Jacksonville, Florida and Jill surprised us by dying her dark brown hair blonde.  Jill and Julia were friends who when I was in my early teens showed me what true friendship is.  (Left to Right:  Stacy and Jill making fish faces @ Trianon Ball in 1984; Jill, Stacy, and Julia grabbing lunch at a local winery in 2023; a great attempt at a pyramid with Julie, me, (another friend Kelly), and Jill on the bottom in 1983)

On the second, October 19, I was able to put in 4 hours of community support by representing FieldHaven Feline Center at a California Public Employee (CalPers) event.  The event offers CalPers employees to make payroll donations to local nonprofits who they learn about at the event.   So, I donned the cat ears and talked cat non-stop for four hours with CalPers employees.  I mean, basically, the universe was doing me a favor because I can talk cats to anyone!  The event was a success with 9 new volunteers connected to our volunteer coordinator, a few individuals asking about estate planning, and over 50 grabbing payroll donation information.  On the way home, I stopped by the shelter and was able to love on some cats in FieldHaven’s care including a few elderly cats and the community semi-feral / feral cats in Bucks Barn. (Left to Right:  Board Members (Mariah, me, and Preston) manning the table (top), FieldHaven summer promo t-shirt “Summer of Fluff” (middle), me although you can’t see my cat ears (bottom), information table w/snack bowl (right).

Sharing these two adventures is a great reminder of the importance of taking your time off when you have the opportunity to do so.  Also, to make friends with people who want the absolute best for you (read more below). 😊

Surround Yourself with the Best People

As Jill, Julia and I were talking about our friendship one thing kept coming up – how lucky we were to find each other at such vulnerable times in our lives. 

When Jill, Julia and I met, we all had been uprooted or received news that was unsettling.  I had just moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sacramento, California.  Julia had just moved from Clearlake, California to Sacramento, California and Jill had just found out that she was adopted.  I was the youngest of the three.  Julia was two years older (Freshman) and Jill was four years older (Junior) than me.  But age and level in school didn’t matter, in fact, none of us went to the same =because our connection was immediate. 

What brought us together was we all participated in a service organization for young women.  Our service organization focused on raising funds for service dogs for individuals with hearing or sight challenges. 

What kept us together was we truly wanted the best for each other, and we helped each other through the challenging times.  I have described it before as simply this: our friendship was solidified because each of us invested in the success of the other.  As my life improved, the others improved.  We were intentional in the support of each other’s goals and could expect honest feedback if any of us got off track.  When Jill got a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, Julia and I celebrated the accomplishment.  There was no jealousy or competition between us, just the desire for us all to meet our goals.  There, of course, was a lot of laughter and young girl antics that are happy memories of youth.   

I read somewhere that when people come into your life, you can determine whether or not they are friend material by asking yourself if you would want them to be a friend to your sister, your father, or your son.  That certainly is a great test for whether you would invite that individual into your life or if you keep them at the periphery as an acquaintance.   The caution here is not making that decision without the time to truly know the person’s character and make the determination.  As humans, we are quick to close doors instead of keeping a door open for enough time to ascertain who the person is and what their motivation is.    

I think the other challenge sometimes is not investing in people because they may be in a state of transition.  One of my dearest friends I met when she was on contract with Wells Fargo for only six months under a Deloitte SoW.   If I had thought of her as temporary, I would have missed a friendship that has spanned 10 years now.  With this said, I do know that sometimes friends come in for seasons and then are gone.  I don’t think there is a correlation between depth of friendship and length of friendship, only attempting to encourage embracing friendship when the gift is presented and proves itself worthy. 

Would love to hear your friend's stories.  Heck, share pictures too.  As humans, connection is so important, and having someone who you can be your full authentic self with is essential.  Each of you is so wonderful that I wish this for each of you and for you to be surrounded by people who truly want the best for you.

Happy Thursday all,

-srt