So Nicole is my friend. And she’s lovely…and quirky…and VERY cool. Like she’s the sort of cool that I troll her Instagram page like an actual fan thinking to myself what I think when I’m on Solange Knowles or Mindy Kaling’s pages, “She’s so cool, she’s SO my friend in my head!!!” And then I remember, oh wait, I know her in real life!! Lol! I can be so silly. Actually I’m silly but not as silly as one of my friends S. Quick story about S from Saturday…

…So the hotel next to S’s house has a very loud fire alarm that unbeknownst to her before Saturday, has a trumpet-like sound. Riddle me this Batman, why did my friend hear this alarm go off in the middle of doing the dishes on Saturday night and immediately think that the Biblical rapture was about to occur?! She thought she was being raptured! Like she stood in one place, eyes closed, head to the sky, speaking in tongues!! After about 15 seconds of no discernible heavenly activity, she remembered that the scriptures mentioned that the dead would arise first; so she politely waited for a total of 15 minutes for the prior-dead to form an orderly queue at the pearly gates…all while praying to leave this “Wicked world”.

I’m sorry but this story cracks me up every sinlge time I’ve remembered it since Saturday! It took a total of 20 minutes for the alarm to turn off and I guess in her mind, for Saint Peter to shut the pearly gates before her hopeful glaze.

Ok, so back to Nicole my not-just-friend-in-the-head. She wrote a lovely poem I had to steal off her Instagram to share because it is so simple yet so true. How often we look at all we are not, to define EVERY WONDERFUL thing that we are. God help us.

You are not your age,
Nor the size of clothes you wear,
You are not a weight,
Or the colour of your hair.
You are not your name,
Or the dimples in your cheeks,
You are all the books you read,
And all the words you speak,
You are the croaky morning voice,
And the smiles you try to hide,
You’re the sweetness in your laughter,
And every tear you’ve cried,
You’re the songs you sing so loudly,
When you know you’re all alone,
You’re the places that you’ve been to,
And the one that you call home,
You’re the things that you believe in,
And the people that you love,
You’re the photos in your bedroom,
and the future you dream of,
You’re made of so much beauty,
But it seems you forgot,
When you decided that you were defined,
By all the things you’re not.

-Nicole A.