Please welcome Tiffany of Eat Your Heart Out LA...
When Shannon first asked me to write a guest entry on Happiness Is… I was honored. Then she informed me that the theme of the post would be on long term relationships and love.
And I panicked.
My whole identity is based on being single, after all. My writing, my evenings, my musings — it all revolves around my lifestyle as the girl who is not in a relationship. I’m a serial dater. I’m the girl that gets weekly forwards of articles entitled, “Why You’re Not Married” and “Single and Off the Fast Track.” I’m the girl who has never babysat, never fantasized about my bridal gown, and has never wasted an eyelash wishing for love. What, then, can I contribute to the subject of longevity? What do I have to say about love, that someone who is actually in love can’t articulate more eloquently and accurately?
Then I realized I do have experience with a long term relationship. One that lasted years and endured a thousand little heartbreaks. One that held me up through debt, and funerals, and hospital visits, and job woes. One that lasted longer than any of my romances: the relationship I have with my three best friends from college. Sure that’s not what most people have in mind when being asked about long-term relationships, but some people are blessed with a husband or a wife. I was blessed with friends.
The four of us have traveled the world together. We’ve dodged flying champagne bottles on New Year’s Eve in Barcelona; we’ve dodged handsy men in Paris. We’ve cried together in Vancouver. We’ve had 10 course meals in Seattle. The four of us read the same novels at the same time (we’re in an exclusive four-member book club). And we can break down any song into four-part harmony (if you are so lucky as to have my number, you will now know who is serenading my voicemail message), willingly performing for any stranger we encounter. I know everyone thinks their friends are tops, but can your three closest friends compare Mikhail Bulgakov to Gabriel Garcia Marquez in one breath then segue into a harmonized rendition of an SNL Lonely Island tune the next?
I live a life that’s remarkably transient. In a single year I’ll move twice, and it’s likely I’ve swapped jobs. My social group of the moment will have come and gone, along with some boyfriends I cared about and others I didn’t. My hair color? That’s probably changed too. And by the next time you see me, I’ll probably be contemplating a move across the country. But the sole common denominator of the last decade of my life has been those three girls. They’ve never fled, even at my moments of weakness. They’ve loved me, even at my most despicable lows.
When most people imagine the last chapter of their lives, they imagine it with their spouse by their side. I picture my three girlfriends there, hands wrinkled, a little grey perhaps. Because they’re the ones I’m sure I’ll grow old with. Their friendship is the greatest love I’ve known.
{Image via Chalk & Ink}
