The Belief of Best Friends
By
Susan Gable
No matter how many times I fall on my face, no matter how deep into the pit of “I-can’t-do-this,-what-am-I-crazy?” I descend, my best friends are always there, believing in me. Even when I don’t.
We’re long distance friends, communicating daily via e-mail, and to some extent, by phone. If I’m lucky, I see them once year. But that doesn’t weaken the bonds we’ve developed.
We’re all writers, brought together by the up-hill struggle to reach that golden dream of a published novel. One of us has since grabbed that dream – and discovered it’s quite not as golden on that side of the fence as we’d expected, so she still needs faith and support as much as the rest of our group.
My critique partners love the book I recently completed. Of course, they pointed out its flaws as well, that’s their job. But their unwavering faith always helped me get over the rough parts, especially the attacks of the doubts.
And they weren’t just giving me lip service. No, these three women backed up their faith with cash.
I caught them green-handed, being sneakily supportive. They thought they were having a conversation behind my back, but here’s a tip: When sending e-mails behind someone’s back, always check the addy line carefully. It’s really easy to send it winging to the wrong person – in this case, me.
Finances had been stretched beyond the limit in my household for a variety of reasons. Because of that, I wasn’t able to promote my writing by entering it into contests, hoping to snag the attention of an editor judge.
My best friends each chose a contest and wrote the entry fee checks.
At first, my pride was hurt. Giving has always been a lot easier for me than receiving. I got mad. I yelled. I said things I shouldn’t have about their sneaking around behind my back.
My husband said, “Honey, they mean well. They have your best interest in mind. It’s not like they’re stabbing you in the back.”
So I swallowed my pride – and I have to tell you, it goes down bitter, like crushed aspirin without a water chaser. Luckily, the saying “Pride goeth before a fall” didn’t apply here. My story redeemed me and validated their faith by finalling in one of the three contests.
My friends really demonstrated how much they believe in me. You don’t find friends like that easily, and I treasure them. The way they keep struggling in the pursuit of their dreams, the way they pick each other and themselves up after a rejection, the way they all care – my friends serve as a constant source of inspiration for me. They’ve shown me that persistence pays, kindness and love come in many forms – including entry fee checks – and best friends are worth their weight in gold.