Girlfriendology

Carole couldn’t do her job without her girlfriend and co-worker Abbie. (See their fun photo!) Maryann found wellness and friendship with her former physician Dr. Anne. Shirley and Gail have been friends since day 1 - for 54 years. And Shirley has a girlfriend group called the Glamazonz who meet for dinner monthly and are there for each other every day. Renee and her girlfriends met in kindergarten and, now in their 30s, have friendship tattoos to celebrate their friendship and to remember their dear friend Rachel who they lost. Terri and Lisa live across the country and have never met in person. Their friendship is long distance but they’re so close it doesn’t really matter.

Each of these women, and hopefully all of you, have wonderful friendships that are standalone inspirations. These relationships are connections that impact our lives - who we are, what we believe, lessons we learn, insights into our friend’s respected opinions, opportunities to ‘do life’ together. Our girlfriends love us as we are and cause us to want to be a better person because of them.

Following are a few girlfriend stories submitted for the August Girlfriendology Contest. Listen to the podcast for all of them and send in your stories for the October Girlfriendology Contest to contest (at) girlfriendology (dot) com. We’d love to inspire others with your sharing of girlfriend gratitude.

August Contest and National Women’s Friendship Day podcast:

 

 Girlfriendology National Women's Friendship Day and August Girlfriendology Contest Winners Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From Carole: (photo above, and she will be taking her friends out for Starbucks on Girlfriendology!)

I am submitting this photo and short blurb to enter the contest for the Starbucks giftcard.  If I win the card, I will celebrate by taking my girlfriend Abbie out, along with our boss, Jessica.

Abbie and I work together and, quite frankly, I could not do my job without her.  She is the one person I can always count on at work while I’m constantly out on the road all day. I don’t think she knows how much I rely on her and appreciate her friendship.  She is like a rock in a storm during our busy college fair season.

I am so blessed to have her on my team.  She is more than a co-worker…she is my girlfriend and I am so very grateful to have her in my life.

From Renee, our top winner:

In September of 1981, a group of 5-year-old Massachusetts girls entered Kindergarten. As we set about mastering the alphabet and identifying colors by name, we learned another valuable lesson-how to be a true friend. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the bonds we made at such an early age would stand the test of time, the challenge of distance and endure a lifetime of shared experiences. Our group of girls grew to eleven as Junior High and High School went on, and now as we are in our 30s, we’re stronger than ever, rejoicing in our differences and bound by our similarities.

We have played in the same Campfire group, rallied on the same sports teams, worn our hair way too high together, watched each other depart for different colleges and later for different cities spanning the East and West Coasts. We have supported each other through countless breakups, been bridesmaids at each others’ weddings, cried together through the losses of parents, been by each others’ sides as we collectively welcomed 18 beautiful babies into the world and perhaps most poignantly, dealt with the devastating heartbreak as we lost one of our own.

After 21 years of exploring the world together, our group was reminded that we are not invincible. In 2003, we lost our dear friend Rachel in the cruelest possible way. While sightseeing in a Utah park, her jeep became trapped on a snowy mountain, and search parties came back a week later to report that she had lost her battle with the mountain on her futile hike back out. The world changed for all of us with that news, as we lost not only a childhood friend, but a bit of our innocence as well. Each of us decided to reevaluate the way we lived from that moment on. Inside Rachel’s wallet we found a piece of writing that became our new mantra, important words that taught us to live more for each day and to treasure each other and the bonds we had forged over the last 25 years. A new tradition was born in the midst of all this tragedy, a yearly girl’s adventure to celebrate our sisterhood and provide us all with a great excuse to live more like Rachel would have wanted.

Our first trip was to Los Angeles where we met a tattoo artist named Shock who etched the Japanese symbol for “friendship” onto each of our ankles. This permanent mark serves as a tribute to Rachel and to this group that has endured almost as long as each of us has been alive. We traveled to Sedona the following year, took a spa trip the year after that and as each year passed and more babies were born we have gathered locally but always in the same spirit of togetherness and sisterhood. We have vowed not to let a single year pass where we do not set aside time to just be girls. We are sisters through experience, godmothers to each other’s‘ children, shoulders for each other to cry on and most importantly we will be there for each other until the end.

As women, we will always celebrate these ties that bind.

Don’t these stories inspire you?! Spend time with your girlfriends. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Send cards, remember their birthdays, give them ‘just because’ gifts - go out of your way to show your girlfriend gratitude. Listen to the podcast above for more stories and send yours in for our Girlfriendology Contest.

And congratulations to the winners of the August Girlfriendology Contest: Carole, Shirley, Maryanne, Debbie and Renee! Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

Technorati tags: girlfriendology podcast podcasts+for+women girlfriendology+contest contest+winners