Reality Check

Me and Beto at Senior Ball this past fall. 

Occasionally I forget how amazing the people in my life are. It is typically around the point that I begin to think of them as mere acquaintances when something will happen to change my view and help me realize that they really do mean a lot to me and apparently I mean something to them too.

One night in June or July someone tried to break into the store where I work while my friend and I were closing. No one was hurt and there was no damage except for the new dents in the back door and a new fear of loud noises and a near constant paranoia for me. Whenever I hear a sound similar to that of someone hitting a door I freak out. Whenever I think I see someone out of the corner of my eye at work I freak out. Whenever there are cars sitting suspiciously outside somewhere I freak out. I'm sure you get the general idea of my problem.

A while back in January or February Beto, who works with me, showed up and knocked angrily on the back door not realizing the effect it would have on me. I screamed bloody murder and was a total wreck the rest of the night. A few weeks later I was closing with another employee when the phone rang. He answered it and a moment later let Beto in through the back door. I worried that he had knocked and had been standing outside for a while before he called, but when I asked him about it he explained that he didn't want to scare me again.

Last night I was closing with Beto for the first time in a while. When we closed we noticed that there were two cars sitting in the parking lot of the gas station across the street. It was slightly suspicious because the station closed a half hour before we did. As we were about to leave we noticed that the cars were still parked across the street with their lights on as they had been for the past hour. I began to quietly freak out in the back of my mind.

For about ten minutes we hid in the office and peaked through the blinds where they couldn't see us. Once they had suspiciously left together we hurried out to leave. I reached for a bag of trash to carry to the dumpster, but he insisted that I just go start the car and make sure we were ready to leave as soon as he had everything thrown away.

After I dropped him off at his house I made my way home, freaking out the whole way I might add. When I got home I found a text from him asking if I had made it home okay. The simple acts that night had made me realize what an amazing friend he actually is and how much I didn't realize it.

I lay awake for at least an hour thinking of how blessed I was for the people that the Lord has put into my life. I realized that even if I grow apart from people they are still in my life for a reason and maybe that reason is just to be a comfort when I am scared (which is often, let's face it.)