It happens very few times in ones life, but sometimes you meet someone and in no less than one minute you know you already deeply love this person. I loved you from the minute your loud and energetic (and beautiful) ass shook my hand. This wasn’t the best time in my life. This wasn’t when I was feeling most myself, or most confident, or most fulfilled. My days were full of fear and questioning, of dread and of exhaustion. You were the whoosh of energy that I didn’t know I was desperately in need of. You were the woman and friend I wasn’t looking for but immediately knew I would count as an influence on my life for years to come. You promised the security guard you weren’t homeless and I remember thinking “Who the hell is this girl?” You practically forced me to try on your absurdly dark Maybelline lipstick. I listened and obliged, and then you built me up in two minutes flat like the company I had been keeping at that time hadn’t done in more than a year. You sent me home with that lipstick that day, even though you said it was your current favorite Fall color. You practically shoved that tube of confidence into my hands. You may have forgotten this, but I never will. You taught me about a vital part of the woman and friend I wanted to be in that one instant. I’ll keep that tube of lipstick for the rest of my life. It’s a story and a lesson I hope to tell to my daughters over and over and over again one day. I admire you, look up to you and love you dearly. You are an incredible human being and it is a true honor to know you.
Thank you & I love you.