I'm a girl of best friends. I mean I try to be a friendly person in general but there are some people who I am very close to and these are the best friendships I have, the ones I know will be there for many years to come but also the ones that require the most work. These are the friends for which I will fly half way across the world when they ask. I choose to live where I am and the lifestyle that comes with it but one thing I don't want to sacrafice are my life long friends. These are the friends who are there to celebrate with me and to listen to me fall apart when things are too big for me to handle alone. I have best friends from various parts of my life, childhood, high school, college, Germany and I value all of them. I guess this all comes to my miond as I justify to myself flying to the US for 5 days 2 weeks before handing in my complete dissertation to attend a best friend's wedding plus rehersal dinner plus bachelor party. I literally make myself sick thinking of the work that is waiting for me but I know in my heart I truely want to be there for him as he was for me through so many important points in my life. I am, a bit selfishly, also looking forward to seeing several of the other guests. So, I have moved into my office, bringing dinner with me and canceled all other apointments in order to squeeze in as much research as humanly possible. I will try my best to work through the 9 hour plane ride and still be awake for that night's bachelor party. In the end, I have to trust myself to make it through both my dissertation as well as the wedding weekend. I'm already trying to squeeze in some stress reducing retail therapy. But in the end, I could not imagine missing such an important event for a best friend. I've already made 3 trips across the ocean in the name of attending weddings and I imagine this won't be my last since I already booked a hotel for 2013. So now, I just need to work on efficient productivity and "calm, calm, calm."
