GAMECHANGER

Making friends today can often feel less about connecting with someone who is similar to you and more about feigning a façade of the best version of yourself to attract what you think will make you look best. We are just about numb to the difference between how things look and how things feel. Having a guard up is standard. We keep things hidden because we don’t want to drop the burden of not being perfect  on someone close to us.  We don’t want them to have to deal with the atrocity of loving us as we are. So we all stash our failures and our weaknesses and our shame in a closet and then walk around like it doesn’t exist – plagued by it only when we’re not distracted enough by a screen or Tweet or filtered photo to remember what’s real. And most of the time, nothing in that closet is huge or dramatic or different from what anybody else has stashed away. They’re just little pieces of imperfect selves. Human, normal, honest selv...

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, and my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love... I will. I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despit...

There's no love greater than mothers love, and there's no greater sacrifice than what a father does for his kids. As my father’s   daughter – not ONLY   has John Kagwaini taught me to be a princess   but he is the man who taught me   how to ride , my first bike and be the coolest kid ever, he is also my anchor, my friend, my   guidepost and my   role model.  From getting me   through school troubles, undergoing a bad-ass crazy teen phase all over again to getting overtly protective when you started to hang out with the guys whilst comforting you through heartbreaks and being there through thick and thin, John Kagwaini Has loved me and my siblings   ever-so-more every single moment right from the time he saw us .  And on this beautiful journey, he not only made me who i am   but also has laid the template for my personal   understanding of who i am as an individual ,self-love ,   the world and relationsh...

 While words can never fully express how much someone means to us, language can still provide comfort, solace, hope and even inspiration following the death of a loved one Our lost friends are not dead, but gone before; advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod. While we are mourning the loss of Brian Weyama, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil  But fate ordains that dearest friends must part. Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there? The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost.  The death of a friend is equivalent to the loss of a limb.It takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, and a day to love them,...