Happy Birthday K Tap

All I can ask for is forgiveness over the lateness of this blog. Katie's birthday was 3 days ago! However, New Years day was spent sleeping until four and then hanging out at Katie's birthday celebration until Midnight. As for the other two days, I have no excuse.

Happy belated 24th Birthday Katie!

It seems silly to introduce Katie like I have with every one else. If you read my blog and you don't know that Katie Tapper is my oldest friend, then you probably don't know me very well.


A few reasons why I'm grateful for you Katie:

• You call me out and keep me real. There are only a handful of people who will put me in my place when I need it. I can always count on you to say, "Merry, are you kidding me? Make it better!" when I do something wrong. I appreciate that more than you'll ever know.
  
• You're full of life. I know a lot of the time you don't feel this way, but you're wrong. Your presence lights up a room, and creates energy for people that they didn't have before, especially me.
  
• You're one of the strongest people I know. Again, I know a lot of time you don't feel like this because you see others skating through life while you're not. However, if those people had to deal with the challenges you deal with every day, they wouldn't hold up quite as well. It's inspiring to think about during my own challenges.
  
• You make it comfortable for people to be who they are. I know all your closest friends will agree with me. Sometimes it's hard to be real, but you never give anyone any reason to feel uncomfortable in their own skin. You never judge your friends, and you're always there to listen.
• You have a huge heart. You make the relationships in your life numero uno. You put your whole heart into you family and friends. Some people don't get how important that is, but you seemed to figure it out quite early.

I could go on and on about why I'm grateful for Katie, and why I love you so much, but I wanted to take a different twist on your birthday blog.


Some of my favorite memories of you Katie, age 23 (I will not get into specifics because it would turn into a novel):

• Automatic Love Letter @ the Magic Stick in Detroit.
• The one and only Katie Tapper show in Hastings.
• Countless movie nights where we would battle over the genre and would end up watching some suspense thriller.
  
• South Haven week, August. Especially sitting out by the fire until 3am.
• Tegan and Sara Chicago weekend!! Best. concert. ever.
• Starting to play music together again... still haven't figured out a name (maybe in 2009?)
  
• Halloween weekend adventures, including Windsor, casino, and Uh Huh Her.
• Skiing at Holly and Timber Ridge, being there while you snowboarded.
  
• This entire winter break which included a lot of music, movies, talks, 90210, and sleepovers.
  

A few reasons why your 23rd year will make your 24th year better than the rest:

• You've grown up. You realized early on during 23 that it was time to stop treating your body like a freshman in college.
• You've stood up for yourself. You decided that you weren't going to let others walk all over your heart.
• You've accepted yourself a little more. It's tough to feel different, but I can tell you're starting to embrace it.
• You've made positive decisions about your lifestyle. Not many people can recognize what they don't like about their life and make strong efforts to change it.
• You're embracing what truly matters to you. You're family. You're friends. You're future. You're health.
• You've planned a cool future with a really cool chick (me). Hopefully our plans for this year work out and we have an awesome time.