When Rachel started opening up to friends, she found that many of them were also caring for their parents.
Transcript
So that has been very, beyond helpful, that support group who—they are just my friends at this point really—and then, as well, the therapist. And then, just surrounding myself with people who are up to having honest and real conversations. So I think, at that dark time in my life, I wasn’t with people who could handle what I was going through. They weren’t in a place where they were centered enough to carry a little bit of my pain as well. And now, I just only surround myself with people who know my story and are open to having the discussion with me and offer me support.
So, there’s a core group of people who have really been my family over the last five to seven years, and who I can call with anything, and who offer not only me support, but my mom support. And they’ve been godsends. And then of course, you always have friends who are just sort of fair weather friends, and that’s fine, and those are not people that I call in terms of when I need something, but they are still there. And everyone knows my story, and I think I used to sort of be a bit of a victim about it. And I think that just comes with age; I just have let that go; life is what it is, and I wouldn’t be who I am without all of this. So, I’m actually pretty blessed I think.
But, just really amazing friends. And it can take a long time to find those people, and it took me a long time to feel comfortable in opening up to have those conversations. But once I actually opened up and started having those conversations, you realize that everyone has a story, and everyone is going through something, and everyone wants to feel closer and more connected to one another, and to share. And one of the biggest things, I think, about the world is that people don’t share enough. Because the minute I started sharing, the stories that came out were beyond—and actually my class of people in law school that I was good friends with, almost everyone had a sick parent; almost everyone. And I had two or three friends who lost parents while we were in school. If I’d only just bottled it all up and didn’t have a conversation, we’d all just be carrying it alone which would be ridiculous.
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