Highs and Lows
December 16th, 2003 § 0 comments
Once a week we have 'Girls Night.' This involves a core group of girls gathering for some estrogen driven free therapy and a lot of carbs and merlot. The girls are your garden variety of professionals, from corporate professionals to teachers to students, from singles to married to divorced, and moms and non-moms. I was introduced to the group by a friend I met through working at a school long ago, and the others are girls she's known since junior high. They include the pretty, popular girls you could never fit in with in high school and even the nerdy, dorky girls that never fit in anywhere (guess which group I was in). But at Girls Night, we all become some sort of gelled entity in which we defy all differences and come together for some real time friendship. I've never been the 'rah rah sisterhood' sort, but there's something refreshing about being candid and supportive of these girls that I would probably never meet in my daily routine.
Our weekly ritual also incorporates 'highs and lows,' in which we sit in a cirlce a la kumbaya and discuss our high and low points of the week. Silly to the outside observer, perhaps, but it is the only time in a span of 168 hours that I actually have a chance to discuss my reflections to real live human beings and garner a response in person (readers, you are simply not utilizing the comments option!). The weekly responses are as varied as getting divorced or maybe as simple as having a bad day at work, and the group's reactions are similarly varied. There is C, an elementary school teacher whose zeal for life and personal interaction have made her the favorite cheerleader of the group. She swiftly moves us along in the circle, making sure everyone has a turn and opportunity to gain responses from the group. Other members, such as A, a home designer who provides snarky comments that incite laughter and often help lighten some of the more emotional discussions. K, a real estate agent, and her down-to-earth and no nonsense personality shine through in her discussions, often illuminating the right and wrong paths to some of our dilemmas.
It is those "you're right - he was so wrong for you" or the "I understand how you feel" comments that we crave so often in our everyday lives. I admit that many of my friends are male, and there is no way in hell any of those things could ever come out of their mouths no matter how much they sympathize. This week I had many lows, but checking in with the girls has become the cheapest therapy I've ever come across. My girls rock.