Friends

In this very purposeful season of my life, I'm realizing I have 3 things:

1. God. faithful, unconditionally loving, ever-present in my life. 
2. Family. gotta love ya, always will. 
3. Friends. transitional groups of people that mean a whole heck of a lot to you for certain seasons in your life. 

It's important to never take any of those three for granted. But, for the purposes of today, that statement applies specifically to #3.
It wasn't until I ventured off to University that I realized how quickly friends can come into your life and leave without further notice. You start realizing that you're not the only one that has a life, so do your friends. And sometimes, for any extenuating circumstance, that life does not or cannot include the friendship.

I remember in 7th grade, my teacher told the class that the friends you have in elementary school will most certainly not be the friends that you have in high school and university. I didn't believe him, openly claiming that I would be best friends with _________ and __________ and ___________ (fill in the blanks) for the rest of my life. That school, distance, and circumstances would not able to pull apart the bond that had been so beautifully formed in the early years of my childhood.

I'm realizing now that I was wrong. Now, it's not impossible for a friendship to stay alive when school, distance, or circumstances get in the way, but It does become incredibly difficult. For a friendship to survive, three things need to be there:

1. The friendship needs to be mutual. This may sound incredibly banal. But it's not. It's important to establish that you both have the desire to pursue the relationship.

2. Friendship needs to be fought for. It's not easy to keep a friendship going. It takes effort, time, communication, understanding. It's not easy.

3. A friendship needs to develop. This is simply because we as individuals are continuing to develop and change. Our lives, jobs, schools, passions are in a constant state of flux (This being directed to the young adult of course) Our friendship needs to change with us. It can't be stagnant. We can't live off of "yesterday's" memories. Wasn't it great when .... We need to be able to form new memories.

All this to say that these past few years have made me incredibly appreciative of my friends. I know how quickly it can slip away. I know what it feels like when it does.

To all my of my friends, Thank you. I love you so much. I don't know what I would do without you.

De-Clutter

I don't really know where it sprang up from, the urge to de-clutter my room. All I know is that late Sunday evening I was sitting on the floor going through the shelves on my bookcase, discovering lost papers, photo albums, lifesaving manuals, and books all wrapped in dust - a sign that I hadn't looked at, nor cared about these items in a long time.

One thing you need to know about me. Deep down somewhere, I really do love to organize. I remember one time in high school, when I organized the entire prop room for my drama class with a few other girls. We started with a room that "didn't have a floor" and finished with a beautifully organized masterpiece of costumes, hats, and fabric. It was so clean, and we had created so much new space, that Peters, our drama teacher, actually used the room for final year monologue performances. Yup.

But I digress.

Over the past few days I have spent several hours going through every box, shelf, and container. I've been throwing away things that I never use, and putting away into storage old school assignments, drama scripts, agendas, and certificates that I still care about but that certainly don't need to be in my room all year round. I'm serious, I was finding school assignments from early elementary school on my bookshelf. Unnecessary.

I've been at it now for about two days, and am only starting to feel like I've made a dent. The thing is, once I start, I can't stop. I can't just do one shelf, because then I have to do all the shelves. I can't just do my shelves because then I need to do my desk drawers. Which makes me do my night-side table, and my closet, and my files ..... The list goes on.

I feel like its more than just an organizational rampage though. It's more like a passage into adulthood? A time that I can spend decluttering my heart as well as my physical room. (Try and find the symbolism there why don't you) God's calling me to a new season. I've also just turned 20. Maybe there's a correlation between all these elements. Maybe there isn't. I'll let you judge for yourself. As for me, there are a few more boxes I need to go through.

K