Sometimes I have a hard time reconciling my college self with my current self. (It helps that I married my college sweetheart, and eight and a quarter years later there are still few people I'd rather spend time with than him.) But what about the friendships? The acquaintances I still run into from time to time? The people I thought I knew? Those I thought would remain lifelong friends who are now mostly names on a Christmas card list because there isn't enough time or lack of distance between us for anything more? I question those people and relationships I once held dear, sometimes, and then I read blog posts like B's today. And I'm reminded that even if we live in different places, and even though we have children and all the daily responsibilities that go with parenthood, and even if we haven't seen each other in FOREVER, we still are kindred spirits. We still are friends. And my grown-up, married-with-kids-self would have been also have been thankful the vomit was not alive as were the lice, sucked it up, and carried on, just as I was thankful years ago at LU, when Bethany would rub-scratch my back and make me feel like she cared, and when Miriam would help me with my College Algebra and never make me feel dumb, and when Ester and Kara would listen to me rant and rave while trying to understand the prevailing, unquestioning, black-and-white interpretation and application of many biblical principles that didn't gel with the way I was raised and - whether they agreed or not - we could still go get tacos afterward.
Today, I can remember that while I have matured in the necessary ways from the college girl I was, I am still the same at my core. And the close friendships which started more than a decade ago need not suffer because of distance and time; they need only adapt and mature themselves. And honestly, I shouldn't be bothered by the opinions of acquaintances - people who never knew me anyway.
Plus, college me would give mad props to present me for getting a tat. Which is happening. Pictures will soon follow.
[In other news, this song really reminds me of this verse, which I've been thinking about quite a bit recently as we read it in our BSF study a couple weeks ago.]
1 comment:
Kindred spirits never really grow apart, do they? How I wish we could get together for the afternoon RIGHT NOW. No, an afternoon wouldn't be nearly enough. A weekend? Maybe a whole week if our spouses would agree to hold down the forts? (After my post today, I don't imagine mine jumping at the opportunity... hehe.)
Post a Comment