Livspiration

This week, like many other kids at my school, I have the common cold.  I am less than pleasant.  Believe me, I have my days like everyone else.  My voice sounds like I swallowed an old man's voice box.  Yeah, it is that bad.  I am usually a cheery ball of Claireness, but not lately.  To make matters even worse, I try not to cry at school, but I let the tears flow for the dumbest reasons these past two days.

Often times, I feel like I am the friend who helps people through tough times.  I've had my share of rough times, and I wish my friends would have been there a little more.  However this week, only one friend really pulled me out of my selfish, sickly little bubble of grossness: Livi.

Livi and me last year
Photo Courtesy of Mama Claire

Livi is the kind of person who makes you laugh when you want to cry, smile when you are frowning, and giggle at the silly things in life.  I appreciate Livi so much.  She's one of the few people who actually looks on the bright side of life 99.9% of the time. Whenever I am around her, I have a smile on my face.  

Today, Livi was the one who really cared enough to try and bring me out of my awful mood.  To be honest, I don't even know if she was aware that she made me so much better today.  In science and at lunch, Livi was simply herself.  She asked me if I was okay, and even with my response of a thumbs-down, she made me laugh and have a good time. 

99.765658% of the time I am super positive and Claire-y.  But, I am not a "Livi."  Livi just wears a smile and carries it everywhere.  One of her most admirable qualities is how humble she is.  Livi never brags about herself, but there are so many things she could brag about.  For starters, she was moved up to VARSITY lacrosse because her defensive skills are out of this world.  Also, she an amazing ski racer.  She is so dedicated to ski racing and works so hard to be the best she can be.  (And just so everyone knows, she will finish her slalom race this weekend and do a really amazing.)  

I was just perusing her blog and game across a post called, "Healing."  Everything she write is so inspirational and heartfelt.  After reading her entire post, this was my favorite section, 

"Many times in everyone's lives, bad things happen.  

Things that we wish we could avoid, things that we 

wish we could go back and erase.  We look back on the moments 

and the days before these times and think, how could I not 

have seen it?  More times than not with these situations, it seems 

like there were a hundred signs of what was going to

 happen, a hundred signs that we just failed to see.  The truth is 

though, that bad things happen to everyone.  The only truth that we fail

to see is that all we can to is try to heal." 

Overall, I love Livi like a sister.  Every day I learn something from her, and I am honestly inspired.  She's one of my best friends, and I wish I could be more like her.  Livi's energy is so spunky and kind, and by just writing this post, I've become happier.  Thanks Liv :).