F-R-I-E-N-D ... I'm your buddy you can count on me ...

friendship -noun: 1. the state of being a friend; association as friends: to value a person's friendship. 2. a friendly relation or intimacy. 3. friendly feeling or dispostion.

When I was little, I had more imaginary friends than real ones. I think that's what happens when you grow up in a house in Pewee Valley, Ky., with more elderly people than children within a two-mile radius. I would talk to my imaginary friends while riding my bike, playing in the yard or while walking down the street. I'm sure the geritol population saw this as something we had in common ... talking to ourselves.

As I grew older, Girl Scouts and dance lessons helped me make some friends in the adolescent stages of life. One of my favorite songs I learned at Kavanaugh Day camp:
"F-R-I-E-N-D .... I'm your buddy you can count on me ....."  ..... well, if you know me at all you know my memory sucks. So I forget the rest.

But no matter how hard I tried (which may have been too hard), it seemed like I was always the target of bullies and people talking behind my back about my buck-teeth or silly laugh. I really had nobody I could count on. It seemed like every day my "friends" turned against me.

Puberty was the worse. That awkward stage where boys consume your thoughts and you realize with each middle school dance that you aren't going to go because there isn't a boy around who wants to buy you a slice of pizza and dance with you once the Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" goes off, the lights dim low and Boyz II Men's "Til the End of the Road" bounces off the gym walls.

Then there was high school. Thank God for the SOHS Color Guard. Being forced to spend 40 or more hours per week crammed on busses, sleeping in classrooms or hotels for nearly every weekend of the school year. Even though we fought over boyfriends, bluejeans and makeup there was finally a group of GIRLS who were my friends.

That group gave me the confidence I needed after graduation to be myself. Who cares if I laughed funny? By college, people thought my laugh was great and they loved my stories. And I got more friends.

When I joined the Army my laugh brought us together as we sat in the woods pissed at the world and the decision we had made because we could've been at some bar drinking beer and eating wings instead of in the woods of Fort Jackson freezing our asses off, eating shitty MREs and drinking Victory Juice.

I am glad that I have many friends from all walks of life and different backgrounds. I have friends from elementary school who moved away and who thanks to Facebook, I'm able to see their children and their Families. I have friends from college who I see their bylines printed in papers across the country, photos on the internet after the Superbowl and who make a difference in the lives of our youth teaching music and arts.

Thanks to the Army I have friends all over the world - from Seattle to Portland, Afghanistan to Germany, Africa to Arizona who are there to listen because they have been there too. And I know that no matter where we are, they've got my back because I've got theirs.

And then I have my girls. My Guard girls who are the closest thing I have to sisters. Who after 15 years know that sourpatch kids will make me smile and who know it's okay to say "I love you and I don't know what to say." Girls who miss a stoplight and don't give up to drive to my house in the middle of the country to make me laugh my goofy laugh and remind me to not give up.

friendship  -noun: the gift of life from one person to another