Thank you for being a friend

Hi friends,

This month has stumped me. I have started five versions of this letter and none have materialized to something I wanted to share. June is emotionally complex. We celebrate Juneteenth and Pride. As a white woman who is not part of the LGBTQIA+ community, my words feel performative, yet I am thinking a lot about the inequality and injustices occurring today to Black and LGBTQIA+ people. Instead of letting my writer’s block and white guilt send me into a Netflix binge, I am going to write a short ode to friendship.

Friends can be our chosen family. When life feels lonely and scary, I hope you have a friend who is safe, fun, and great listeners. Sometimes family and community are not safe to be your authentic self. When that is the case, I hope you find those people who adore you for the way you dress, talk, and love. Play this summer with your friends. Swim, laugh, eat popsicles, and gossip about your crushes.

Esther Perel wrote, “In the world I aspire to friends can become family. Lovers can become friends. And even family—the one you came from, the one you never thought might be able to love you in your complexities—can come to understand that you’re no less a person, no less lovable, because of who you love. And if that never happens, if they never come around, know there is a family of choice waiting for you.”

Recommended Read: Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

Recommended listens: Superpower: Kirby featuring D Smoke

Thank you for being a friend: Golden Girls Theme Song

Recommended watch: Reshma Saujani’s commencement speech at Smith College about overcoming “Imposter Syndrome”

With loving support,

Mallory