How do you make friends as an adult? Most of us say the same experiences. That means, being colleagues and enduring the same ups and downs, and the intricacies of company policies and politics that inevitably plague any environment that has more than 2 people in it.

I do not make friends easily. I don’t smile. Don’t make the effort to introduce myself. I don’t start conversations. It is not because I do not like people, but really, I am very wary of being shut down when I try. Shy isn’t the word to describe me because no one would believe it, but maybe defensive is the better term. I put walls up. I admit it. It’s easier for me to just sit myself down and think that it’s just not going to happen, or people will assume I’m a b**ch and I’m not going to help my case much.

Now and again one or two people break through that shell. One of them is my friend Anna. She is about the exact opposite of me. Thoroughly girly, she is a makeup artist and content creator by profession. She can talk about outfits. She likes the tall, dark and rugged. She knows how to do a wicked pose. She is actually friendly. She is almost excessively peppy that you don’t know if she’s being fake.

She is one of the most sincere, caring people I know. Count yourself lucky to be considered a friend because she is inclusive and protective of the people she loves to the end. She knows how to bring people together just by her presence. She has one of the most positive outlooks out there, that I hope the world doesn’t beat out of her, because it almost glows through her. Her laugh is infectious and her humor, never malicious.

Don’t get me wrong, she has been through a lot, and life has tried to beat her spirit down, but she always gets up. She finds the good in situations and figures out how to spin it to look at it differently. She is hopeful but not naive.

She turned 29 last week and I was sitting there at the beach, with a couple of her other friends, shaking my head thinking what am I doing here. Because it was so random, and if you told me I would be there in 2007, I would have laughed my butt off at the absurdity of the concept.

I am grateful to have her in my life and I hope you find a friend like her. Maybe you get to meet her one day too, and you’ll see what the fuss it about.