Everything changes....

As I sat, last week, signing Christmas cards, it hit me just how much life has changed over the last several years. My world is COMPLETELY different today than the day I graduated college; my priorities have changed and my plans for the future have an altered look. But one thing continually sticks out to me as odd… PEOPLE. I find myself thinking back to the people I used to spend my time with. Many of those friends have moved on and up in their lives; i.e. Gotten married, had kids, started new careers, joined the military, gotten divorced…you name it. Don’t misunderstand me, I LOVE my friends. I am blessed, beyond all I could ever dream, with encouraging, supportive, corrective, loving, thoughtful, true friends; People who aren’t afraid to tell me truth, people who will let me just sit and cry, people who will let me talk forever, people who keep me grounded… BUT I can’t help but miss the people whom I’ve lost touch with. I know what you may be thinking, “if you miss them so much, call them…” easier said than done. I truly believe as people grow up, they can grow apart. Let’s face it, what’s important to us in a friend at 18 may or may not be important to us at 25. When I was 18, I was drinking, goofing off and hanging out with people who did the same. I’m 25 now (at least for 2 more weeks) and everything is different. Time is precious to me now. People are important to me now. God is the center of my universe now and the folks I spend my time with have the same mentality. And I may find that when I’m 30, everything will be different again.
This truth remains…. Every person who has shaped me has taken a part of me. I can remember meeting this guy several years back who was completely different from anyone I had ever met. We instantly became friends…the kind of friends who would sit in a completely silent living room and talk for hours about books and history and theories. He moved away, but then moved back…yet we NEVER talk anymore. I think about the friends I made in college. The girls I went out with every single week for 4 years. And now, we are almost strangers again. Is this because we didn’t care about each other as much as we thought or have our lives gotten so hectic that a quick email or phone call would throw our entire schedule off? I believe in the saying that “some people come into your life for seasons and some people come into your life for reasons.” I guess I just didn’t get so attached to them in the process.
If you are someone who was once a friend to me, please know that I probably think of you often. I hope life is treating you kindly and I am a better person because we were once friends.
If you are someone whom I spend time with now, please know that I adore you and am thankful everyday that god has placed you in my life. I am a better person because we are friends.