Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe - Part 1

“A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”   Dinah M. Craik

Julie, my best friend in 7th grade, was everything that I was not. 

She was adventurous and cocky and fun and willing to take chances.  I, on the other hand was shy and quiet and the good girl who never did anything wrong.  Julie would sit in the back of the bus with the cool kids and pretend she belonged.  I sat with her totally uncomfortable and expecting at any minute that someone would laugh at me and shame me into moving.  Yet, no one ever did.  Back then CPO jackets were all the rage and Julie and I both owned one.  They were quite simply heavily lined flannel shirts but we knew we were cool in them.  We would go out at night and wander the neighborhood and Julie would pull a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket.  I have no idea where she got them and didn’t ask.  We would smoke our cigarettes and perfect our blasé “yes we do this all the time” smoking look and talk about boys and school and parents and give each other the comfort of friendship that 7th grade girls need.  Julie was the one who made me a little bit more cool, a little bit braver and a little bit naughty and I loved her for it.  And so I was heartbroken when her family moved out of the area right before the start of high school.