Friends;

Isn't it so great to be able to experience life with the best people?
The thing is, people come & go, you just have to find the people that are worth the time. Sometimes, people walk into your life to teach you a lesson then there's people that walk into your life that are just plain out blessings; you just have to figure out who's who.

School & work are obviously one of the biggest places you will find "friends". Some people are just people to help get through the day, but then there's people that will stay in your hearts forever. In high school, you sometimes want to be the social butterfly (AKA me, which didn't turn out too good). You wanna know all the football players, you wanna know all the cheerleaders, etc. But at the end of the day & at the end of senior year when you walk across that stage, I promise you, you will probably never see half of those people ever again. Social media is great though, it's a good way to keep up with people that you used to be friends with. Nowadays, I think I only talk to 3 people that I went to school with. 2 of them being friends from middle school & one of them that I went to middle school with but never liked until high school. (LOL I'M SO SORRY IF YOU'RE READING THIS, BUT I LOVE YOU SO MUCH)! These girls have been there for me through soo many things throughout the years. I don't know how to live life without them. I can't thank them or God enough for placing those 3 wonderful girls into my life. "They" say that if a friendship lasts longer than 7 years, it's supposed to last for a lifetime & those girls have definitely been there for the past 10 years. I've seen those girls grow & mature in so many ways, I wish nothing but great things for them all, they deserve the world.

Anna has been there since day one of like middle school, so she's been along with this ride for the longest. Anna has got the biggest influence on me out of a lot of people. She's definitely seen me in my worst & best days, but yet she's still been there for me. I remember the middle school days where she would help me stalk to guys that I liked HAHAH. As horrible as that sounds, it happened & I have absolutely no shame in my game. Then there was days were we would go to the movies & just jump from one theatre to the next, to watch as many movies as we could. Then there was days were we would go to the Apple store & take selfies on every single computer that we could. (Do you guys remember when that was actually a thing?) We would spend hours at the mall literally just fucking shit up & it was great. (that was when we didn't have any responsibilities) Then high school came & I literally didn't see or hear from her all first semester because that was marching season for her & she has no time to be my friend. Then comes 2nd semester & it's like no time has passed at all. I literally do not know how to survive without her. I remember after high school & we both started to drive, she didn't trust herself for ANYTHING behind that wheel, 3 years later she's driving us 4 hours to Baton Rouge, LA to go see our favorite person in the world Young Gerald. I don't think I would be able to roadtrip like that with anyone else except her. She doesn't have a dull bone in her whole body, anytime with her is definitely a ball. All I have to say about this girl is that I am so grateful for her & she's literally an angel. She's helped me live my life the past few years. I love you so much girl. Thank you for everything. I need to end this now or else I could end up going on for days. I love you! :)



Anyway, enough of my girls; I'm just saying. People come in & go just as easy as the weather, so please just be true to yourself; never feel like you have to change because of someone else. You're amazing just the way you are. There's only one of YOU, so be the best version of yourself.

Now go out in the world & kick ass, beautiful!

- Iris Kotico :)

p.s. if you have a couple girlfriends or anyone in that matter, tell them you love them & show them all the love that you can because you never know when your or their last day on earth will be!

p.p.s guard your heart, don't be so easy to give everyone your trust.

most importantly -
REMEMBER THAT NO EVERYONE HAS THE SAME HEART AS YOU. Not everyone has the best of intentions for you, or anyone at that.

p.p.p.s this blog post turned into an Anna appreciation post, oooops.. :)