My Friends Are Like Diamonds in the Sand

I have four close friends. I have no desire, at fifty, to surround myself with a million friends who are either fake, or use me to get what they want. I spent time with those types of friends in grammar school, high school, and throughout my twenties, thirties, and forties. I was a very good people pleaser, and I got my butt kicked several times. I wanted to be liked, and I would allow others to take advantage of my compassion and kind heart.

When I was pregnant at twenty eight with my first child, I ran into a girl I had befriended for a while. A year before, I was working at a post office, and she at a bank next door, and we’d have lunch together and meet at the bar after work, or go shopping, or over my house to hang out. My mother had met her, and cautioned me. I let it go in one ear and out the other. One day, we decided to take a ride to the shore. She saw me take off my engagement ring and put it in a box above my bed. It was tight on my hand, and I didn’t want to get it stuck, as each moment, I was getting more and more pregnant and bloated!

She had a baby herself, and when we got back to my house, I went in to take a shower, and she went in to change the baby. When I was done, I decided to put baby oil on my hands, and see if my ring fit. She had thought I’d leave it off until after delivery, and by that time, many people would have gone through my house. When I opened the box, a gold band faced me, but no diamond engagement ring. I was frantic, and she proceeded to help me look all through the tiny house. Nothing. I realized she was the only one who could have taken it, and I was so embarrassed to tell my mom she had been right, and I should have listened to her. I thought about going to this girl’s apartment, and beating it out of her. One thing and one thing only stopped me, I was pregnant. I never saw my ring or that girl again. That experience helped me realize that all people weren’t trustworthy or honest, and I would have to take better care in who I decided to be friends with. And from that moment on, I did.