Candles.

[Photo by Kim Anderson]

Last night after visiting a friend's new & gorgeous apartment, I stood on the platform at 33rd St. thinking about how glad & fortunate I am to have met her. I happened to also be on the phone with another friend who, over my college years, has become someone that I value greatly. That led me to thinking about how blessed I am to be surrounded by amazing people.

I was considering having a post dedicated to a handful of specific women in my life that have really inspired & influenced me -- old roommates, current roommates, mentors, friends, etc. -- but then I had another idea: to have occasional posts dedicated to one person. Kind of like a highlight or profile...or a candle at a girl's sweet sixteen.

Despite my mom's desire to throw me one (more specifically, renting a weekend house out in the Hamptons for my friends & me), I never had one because I never wanted one. I found them to be silly celebrations that were oftentimes outrageously overdone (as clearly exhibited by MTV). The one part of sweet sixteens that I did really love though was the idea of the candle lighting. Ever since the first sweet sixteen I attended when I was much younger, I always wanted a reason to commemorate the beautiful, inspiring, & influential people in my life, but felt that I had missed a chance when I bypassed the 16th birthday mark.

Pretty silly of me. Who's to say that I can't just celebrate people on a daily basis?

I know that these people-posts won't mean much to the readers of this blog; many will just skip over it, especially when I write about someone they don't even know. The actual person I'm writing about might even skip over it. But I think that, in my efforts to rejuvenate my life, it's important for me to remember the good that's around me & to recognize the people who have helped me to get this far.