It’s that time of the year again, when we sit back and reflect upon the past year. Most of us remember our accomplishments, while others reminisce on the relationships that we’ve built. For me, I mainly look back on both. This past year has been quite a crazy one full of changes, growth, and realization. And I can’t be more thankful of the opportunities that have come my way and the relationships that I’ve formed because of them.
When Mel (you may know her as Mel Inspired) and I were approached by Thomas Sabo to share our friendship by styling their Glam Spirit Watches, I immediately knew that it would be a fantastic way to share the story of how we became friends. Our story is quite the unique one, and certainly not how you would picture a friendship to bloom. If you haven’t already read Mel’s story, you really should.
It’s been more than two years now since we’ve been friends. Scratch that, probably more than two years since we’ve known each other, and a full two years since we’ve been friends. What began as a professional relationship turned into a true friendship. Mel started out as my boss, but she never treated me as a subordinate – not that she did for any of the other employees. But I valued her respect and gave it back. We found a mutual passion in blogging and supported each other through our journey of becoming bloggers. Almost every lunch break was spent taking photos. During our time of unemployment we also spent every waking hour driving around the city shooting photos and conceptualizing content.
But it’s not the mutual passions that drove us to become friends. It’s the crazy amount of respect that we have for each other and how open we are with our thoughts. Mel isn’t your typical friend that agrees to everything that you say/think. I’d probably even say that most of the time we don’t see things eye-to-eye. But that’s okay, because I value her opinions and knows that she only shares them because she cares. I’m the same, and it’s what pushed us closer and closer towards a true friendship.
I know that Mel will never hesitate to tell me if something is a bad idea, and I need that type of person in my life to help save me from my poor decisions. Even if it’s not what I want to hear, I know that she only shares it in my best interest. And that’s the type of friend that you want. The one that isn’t scared of telling you the truth. But our differences are also many times outweighed by our similarities as well.
I can’t even begin to count the times that Mel and I have accidentally chosen the exact same pieces for a project (without telling the other before hand). We’ve gotten so similar to the point where for awhile we were dubbed each others’ twin – until we both decided to do something different to our hair.
So it comes to no surprise that we both loved the Glam Spirit Watches and almost picked the exact same one as well. As you may know, I love my darks. So going for the black option was an easy decision. True enough to our monochromatic preferences, Mel went for the silver option. And though we may be quite similar, we are quite different on many levels as well. We chose to pair different bracelets to each watch that both define our relationship but display it in a different way.
Styling my watch with the United Forever bracelet was extremely symbolic of our relationship as friends. Though together the similar watches unite us, the bracelet too shows the symbolic relationship but with the slight hindrance of how fragile a relationship can be. I love how the two interlocked circles display the strong bond of our friendship, while the delicate strands also show how easy a delicate a friendship can be. Looking down at it, it reminds me to cherish the ones that I love because they could be gone within a fleeting second.
And it’s crazy to think that though most friendships are defined by their similarities, it’s out differences that I cherish the most. Through them we’ve empowered each other to think big, to achieve our dreams and to never stop fighting for what we believe in. Even if that means some arguments between each other here and there. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade Mel in for anyone else – even Kobe (and that’s a tough thing to say). Because a true friend is hard to come by, and once you’ve found them, you have to fight to keep them.
