Shell-ebrate Good Times.

There’s this packet of tissues I carry that have been through the ringer.

Pink in color, with a cat in a crown (of course), these are the tissues I use whenever I have a public breakdown.

There haven’t been many of them, but they’ve been memorable, haunting enough for me to associate these tissues with my severe depressive episodes.

The first was in Los Angeles, when I was dropped off at LAX after staying the weekend with a boy.

I remember distinctly getting inside the airport doors and my tears letting loose like a broken dam, emotionally overwhelmed and unable to hide my ugly crying face.

The second, more recent time I used this handy dandy packet of tissues was just a few days ago, on my last afternoon on the island of Kauai.

My two best friends from college, on our bi-annual get together, all met on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii and on my last day, I had a meltdown.

I was triggered, by a boy, and unable to control the emotions that were clogging every oraface of my body, I let loose in the backseat of the Jeep, tears flowing out like the Kaulia Waterfall. Even more embarrassed that I was, in my head, ruining our last precious hours together, the situation worsened, after my arm became numb and I began hyperventilating.

Eventually, after blowing through my tissues until there was nothing left but soggy remains, I bravely texted them I needed to stop the car, and in the middle of a parking lot in Kauai, roosters crowing around us, we had a heart to heart.

A completely unexpected conversation, but one of the highlights of my trip.

See, there was a reason I broke down when I did, and who I did with. And it reminded me of the power of friendship, especially with the girls I was traveling with.

Being able to express myself, even when that expression is sometimes as ugly as I’m sure I looked, in front of these special humans, is what true friendship is.

It’s acceptance of each others flaws, it’s comfort in knowing that you have a shoulder to cry on, and a friend to wipe rainy mascara off your cheeks. It’s beauty in believing that your friends will be there for you through thick and thin, and this was thin for me.

When I look back on all of the fabulous fun filled days I had in Hawaii, my favorite moments were the in betweens. It was the driving to the destinations, the top-off-the-Jeep, sun coursing through, wind in our hair, singing Moana at the top of our lungs kind of moments. It was my friend mispronouncing “luau” as “luHOW”, it was watching the two of them skipping in the rain singing “Be a Star” from the movie Life-size.

And it was them coming to my aid when I needed friends the most.

Though I still suffer through post-vacation depression (like bursting into tears whenever sand falls out of my clothes), I write this and feel fondness for the trip I just had, rejuvenated and freshly tan. And I know that these memories have only just begun and that as the years go on, I’ll have more to make with these two.

And we’ll continue to shell-ebrate good times, and get through the bad times.

Together.

Cause that’s what real friends do…

Many thanks to Whitney Sutherland, the photography queen, for all her gorgeous photos.