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.