Deleting the Adjectives

Blogging. Not going to lie, this is an entirely new concept to me... and that's saying something, as I a write for a living. Hi, I'm Jenn... or, as Caroline so affectionately refers to me, "Aunt Srat" (though, truth be told, I'm more of a hipster... shhhh don't tell my sorority sisters).

I was first asked by Caroline to guest blog a few weeks ago and I have to say, my initial reaction sounded something like "Lord have mercy, little Srat, you have GOT to be kidding me" (yes, I had consumed a few beers at this point... no, I refuse to apologize, DC Brau is delicious). She wore me down pretty quickly (clearly). So I was given a date. An important date, at that. I was given the birthday week. Great.

So I sat and I thought... for 2 and a half weeks. Now, if you know me at all (which you don't, and you should probably work on that because I've been told I'm the Tina Fey of my generation), this is a bit of a problem. I write for a living. Writing is what I do. I take great pride in knowing exactly what I want to write, when I want to write it. Frankly, up until about 2:30 PM EST, this was not the case. Massive. Panic. Mode. But then I remembered who I was writing for... My best friend. Little back story for y'all, Caroline and I met 3ish years ago during a fraternity philanthropy event. Naturally, I was bent over a gin bucket filling up my cup and who do I hear but sweet sweet Caroline saying "Who is that girl she's so fratty I have to meet her." Frankly, the rest is history. We spent the rest of the day sitting in lawn chairs judging volleyball matches like we knew what we were talking about. Now we gchat judging anything that will stand still long enough for us to look at it (blame it all on our roots... Southerners, we love to judge, bless our hearts).

I digress... so 2:30 rolls around today, and I start looking back through some old text messages and I see one from Caroline that says, "Hey... I love you. Mean it." Now, that may not sound like a lot to some people, but that's not a word we throw out easily, and then I realized something... I may have only known Caroline for 3ish years, but she's been more of a friend to me than some of my oldest friends from high school. Supportive, caring, understanding, appreciative, helpful, empathetic... these are all adjectives that describe Caroline. But if we get down to it... you don't need those words to describe her at all. Like one of my favorite literary characters once said, if you delete the adjectives, you'll find the truth... and the truth is, Caroline is the perfect definition of the word friend. She will be there for you times are rough, and she will listen to you complain about the same relationship drama with the same person over and over (and each time she'll find some new way to make you feel better). I'm 25 years old and I can honestly say that in all my time alive so far, I've only met a handful of people as genuine and earnestly good as Caroline, and I am grateful to have her in my life. Grateful to call her best friend.

I still may be a little confused as to why she granted me with the honor of writing for her birthday week (Lord knows this is probably the worst blog post ever written), but I do know one thing... I am damn glad to call her not just friend, but family.

Happy birthday, little Srat. Ride or die. Sink or swim, I'll never throw you out like Fredo. Love you, mean it.