my relationships

You never realize how much a relationship means to you til it's either gone, fades away or the thought of it fading away or losing it completely crosses your mind. Either while it is still there, or if it's a distant memory you're trying to not forget! 1

This has happened to me on many occasions with losing family, fading away from friends, moving on with boyfriends, losing or meeting co-workers, even changing teachers! It's hard to imagine your life with out them in it, and you can't remember what your life was like before they came along.2

Recently this has happened to me in many ways with many different people! I have put together a bunch of small stories about these relationships to make a some what larger one, which reflects more emotions that tend to follow these relationship testers!3

It was way back when I was only ten. She was approaching her mid-eighties (maybe)! My gramma (how I wanna spell it! back off!) and I sat there for what seemed like hours doing a simple word find. It was our first real bonding time. Just the two of us! The first time one on one we'd laughed this much! It was that day, I realized exactly who this lady was and I became very interested in her in all ways! I wanted to know all about her and what she had done in her lifetime!4

That was our first and only bonding time. God decided that I wasn't meant to have 2 healthy grammas, from who I could learn, laugh with, and be spoiled by. Nope, he made her sick. She went to the hospital one day and never returned home. She was very sick. No way around it either. She was going to pass and we all eventually knew it. 5

For months, we would faithfully visit her every night at the hospital. Eventually, the doctors decided there was nothing more they could do to help her. Since her hospital bill was sky high, my out of state aunts and dad made the choice to move her into a nursing home. That was the last time she got a breath of fresh air. 6

And so the consistent visits every night followed gramma from the hospital to the nursing home. My whole family knew she was declining and not going to be with us much longer, so we all started preparing ourselves for the day. We didn't want gramma to be alone. We wanted her to die with family around her, so we stuck to the same after dinner routine of packing the whole family up and going to see gramma!7

One day, I got a bit selfish and spent the whole day with my friend Janae. We were having so much fun, neither of us wanted it to end. So I called my mom and asked for permission to spend the night at her house. Of course, my mom agreed to this!8

There I was, laying there on the floor for hours. I couldn't sleep. Something wasn't right. I had this odd new feeling in my stomach. Okay, so I couldn't sleep at my friends and my stomach felt weird, this was all new! Then again, I hadn't spent the night anywhere really. I got up and went to the bathroom. I pretty much just made myself comfortable on the floor, just sitting there in the bathroom. After a few minutes Karen (Janaes Mom) came in to see if I was alright. Obviously it wasn't, so we called my parents and she took me home. I got home and slept like a baby once I was safe in my own bed and comfortable!9

The next morning at 7, my mom told me the news, that put all of my emotions on hold. It was the beginning of an emotionless week, my gramma had passed away a few hours ago in her sleep. 10

I jumped up. The only thing on my mind was my dad. He was the one who I thought would be the most affected. I went into his room where he was sleeping, because of the early morning ruckus and having to call all of my aunts from out of town who hadn't been there at the time. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks... How could I be so selfish! I didn't even get to see her on her last night on earth. I felt like the worst granddaughter ever. 11

I didn't cry until the funeral the next week. I felt nothing until that day. I was numb to everything until it all became a harsh reality. I would never talk to her again. I would never hug her again. I would never have another bonding moment with her again. She was gone! Forever. 12

You're born into some friendships, only because of who your parents happen to know and what point they are at with their relationships with their friends. This next story is about a friend who was kinda one of those friends. She just was born to the right people at the right time!13

Scott and Sue were friends of my parents for many years. Scott and my dad had worked with each other on many jobs. Both Scott and my dad have a bit of knowledge in the construction area! Anyway, Scott and Sue just happened to have a baby girl 5 months before my parents had me. They named her Katherine Elizabeth! During our childhood, Katherine and I never really were around each other, and really pretty much only saw each other when our parents got together to just hang out every once and a while. 14

Katherine and I grew closer in Middle school and have become friends for life! She is one of those friends you don't have to talk to every day or hang out with all the time. Yet whenever I need her, she is there for me. Whenever she needs me, I am there for her! We try and get together and go out every once and awhile just to keep in touch and keep each other up to date with important details in our lives. She's like a sister who's off at college who I love to death and know she's always there if I need her. Nothing can ruin our relationship either. It's tough as nails. We have had friends try to tear us apart. Didn't work. Then we had the boyfriend issue come up. We got through that too! 15

Those are two relationships and now on to the third. I've had my fair share of males influencing my life. Not boyfriends either. Just friends. 16

My first close friend of the opposite sex, that I got on my own with out the whole "parents being friends" deal, would be Mike! He was like a brother to me. We really became so close. My mom liked him too. There was never that "I-wonder-what-it-would-be-like-to-actually-date-you" feeling between us. It was great! We were seriously like brother and sister. He was someone I could confide in with everything. He was so funny to. He always was there when I needed him. 17

The way we met was we both happened to bowl on the same league. He was someone that I could just be myself around, and he could do the same with me. He was 18 and I was 15. So there was that whole little bit about being older that got in the way at first, but it faded fast! We used to go cruising around town just having fun. We watched tons of movies. We went out to eat. We just talked too sometimes. I went to his band practices. It was so cool! I became a Sin Silent groupie!18

Then we faded. There just was no more Mike and Amanda. It all just stopped. We quit talking. Never saw each other, until recently! I was out driving around with Kelsey and out of no where there was a car on my tail and honking with a kid hanging out the passenger side! I was like whoa! and pulled over. It turned out to be Mike and Bruce, another friend of mine! We hung out for a bit, exchanged cell numbers and that was it. That's what's happened to me and Mike. We see each other around town every now and then and say hi, sometimes we reminisce about the past for a bit, but that's all. We just aren't like we used to be and probably never will be again. I guess that's just how life flows. 19

Now on to my last relationship I'm going to cover: The boyfriend one! I have my fair share of boyfriends to babble on about.  The one I have decided to write about though, is my current boyfriend, Micheal. It's probably not the best choice for one to write about, but it's the freshest in my mind and he's so dreamy!!! ha ha20

Micheal and I seemed to click from the day we met. We always had so much fun just talking. I never really thought of him in the dating way. Apparently, he had always thought we had a chance. Eventually, I did start to like him in that way. He built up the courage to ask me out. Only after I had given him too many hints of how I felt about him. I obviously said yes! (poem about this called "The Way It Started" posted not to long ago!) We are still together and its coming up on 9 months very soon! Although we have had our fair share of problems, things have been great! We tend to have arguments about communicating, but since we are both pretty open, we talk about it before it becomes to big of a deal. Which is great! 21

Well those are some of the relationship stories I have. I really don't know why I did this. I think it was because I was inspired by Thayla! Everyone should check out her beyond interesting and captivating stories!!! Please leave critical comments and if you have any questions you can either post them on here, or email them to me at  a_erickson21@yahoo.com. Just put "AP story questions" in the subject line! 22

oh and THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ACTUALLY READING THIS!!! NOW YOU  BETTER  COMMENT! comments will be returned!23