Vacation With My Girls

I spent this past weekend in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with some of my best friends from college. We vowed each year since college that we would take one trip together, generally during the Memorial Day weekend. In the past we've been to Miami, New York, Las Vegas and the Bahamas.

This trip was amazing, like every other trip we've taken. Cabo was beautiful. We rode horses in the desert and ATVs along the beach; we hung out by the pool and indulged in great food and drinks.

But this trip was also different. For whatever reason, this vacation made me realize just how grown up and different we were becoming. In college (and the few years immediately after), we all wanted to do the same things, wear the same clothes, think the same way and find ourselves in the same life stage at the same time. But seven years later, things are changing. We're all becoming more of who we really are which happens to make us quite different, and I realized that our paces of life are no longer running congruently. Distance, romantic relationships, and careers are just a few of the things that have led to our unique metamorphoses.

It's a beautiful thing, though, to be able to remain so close while witnessing each other's evolution.

But despite all of this, this trip has led me to appreciate that next to family, there's nothing quite like having great girlfriends--girlfriends who don't let you walk out of the room wearing regular panties when you should be wearing a thong--girlfriends who remind you just how bad ass you really are--girlfriends who serve up the brutally honest truth about your actions and your attitude--girlfriends who root for you in whatever you're trying to accomplish--girlfriends who love you no matter what becomes of you.

The women picture above are some of my very best girlfriends. Pictured from left to right: Elandria Jackson (think Joan from Girlfriends), Kirstie O'Bryant (think Tasha Smith from Why Did I Get Married, but about three notches lower), me (hmm, probably Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog) and Constance Jones (think Kimora Lee Simmons!)

I'm convinced that every goddess needs at least one great girlfriend. I'm so lucky to have more.