Demi Lovato is young enough to be my daughter. But she’s old enough to remind me what it means to have friends.
The 20-year-old is a singer and actor best known for the Disney Channel show Sonny With A Chance.
Yes, I have watched it and yes I have laughed. I also like the theme song and the way Lovato screams at the end of the intro and elbows the show’s logo.
Lovato recently said she thought she had loads of friends but when she checked her cell phone during a time of woe, there were few “missed calls” and few text messages.
She learned who actually cared about her after she spent some time in rehab.
The tale was all over the entertainment media.
“A couple of months before I went to rehab, I had a birthday party and there were a couple of hundred people there. It was full of people who I considered my closest friends,” she has said (quotes via Entertainment Tonight).
Demi Lovato
“When I turned my phone on after being in rehab for three months, I expected lots of text messages and phone calls. I had four texts. That was a wake-up call.”
She added she tightened her social circle.
“I don’t have loads of friends. I used to, but then I realized, do any of them actually care? Now I have people who, if I break my leg in the middle of the night, they’ll come to the hospital with me,” she said. “Or they’ll answer the phone at 4 a.m. if I need them.”
We’ve all been in a spot in our lives where we need others. Some friends and family are great in crises like the sudden loss of a pet or a cancer diagnosis. Other family and friends come in for long-haul dramas like job losses or divorces. Others are swell about helping load furniture into a van for a cross country move.
Knowing we all have our strengths, we can’t necessarily look at those we think let us down as no longer our friends. But I do totally understand how dreadful that would feel to have a room full of people cheering for you and then the next minute there’s the sound of crickets and a pin dropping.
Heartbreaking.
I have a handful of people who have been there for some real sadness and when I have dropped into the depths of despair.
I can’t imagine not having them for better or worse.
I hope you have people who check on you and see how you’re doing.
And I hope you have people you check on too.
