August 2, 2017 9:51PM. It was this 4 minute phone call that changed my life forever. I was sitting in the car with one of my best friends when my mom had to tell her only child that she had lost her dad in a car accident that night. I didn't know how I was supposed to react, so I screamed. I screamed the words again, I screamed at my friend, I screamed at my mom, and I screamed at the entire world.

It was in these next few weeks that I realized just how amazing the friend group I've been able to be apart of over the years really is. As we sat in the parking lot of my apartment complex that night, my friend held me and allowed me to scream at her and truly helped me in every way that I needed it that night, and other friends that were already on the highway to get to me. Over the next few days, I had friends driving in from all over, and some of them I hadn't talked to in years. 6 drove in from Amarillo, 1 from Lubbock, 1 from Austin, 3 from Oklahoma, 1 from plainview, 3 of my sorority sisters made it, and thats not counting the friends that were already in Perryton waiting for me when I arrived at my house at 3:00 AM.

I never fully understood the definition of a true friend until this tragedy occurred. I sat in my house with anywhere for 5-10 friends there at a time. Not once was I alone. There was always somebody standing there with me, laughing or getting ready to pull me together if I fell apart. It has now been a month and a half since I lost my dad, and those same people are still checking on me at least once a week.

Friends are so important. They're the glue that holds your heart together, they're the ones who try their hardest to hold you in place when you can't figure out whats up from down. I never would have made it this far without them. I soon realized that it's not about the people that have talked to you your whole life. It's about the people that came running when I didn't even scream for help. It's about the people that cry just as hard as you do, because your dad was their family too. It's all about the people who work together to pick you up and turn on the light when your entire world goes black. I don't like to think of August 2nd as the day I lost my dad. I like to think of it as the day I realized how amazing friends are, and what it means to have real friends.

I also learned a painful lesson through all this. There will always be people in the world who can't have the decency to send you a simple "I'm sorry" when a tragedy occurs. They will always be too busy thinking about the differences y'all had, and that is a sad situation. Don't let the people who don't care about you destroy you even more. Forget them. It's about the people that care.

Don't ever forget to call your friends when you're thinking about them. If you want to talk to them, do it. Because they're the people that you'll lean on when the world goes dark and you can't find your way. They'll guide you in the darkness and they'll hold you up to keep you from falling. They're some of the best people that you'll ever find.