I have friends. You have friends. Everybody has friends.

But I must be doing something right because I have the best friends.

Not to discount my ‘newer’ friends, but having had several reunions of sorts lately with people I’ve known since junior high, high school and my first time at NIU—going back almost 35 years!—I realize how lucky I am to still have these amazing people in my life. Sure, there’ve been graduations, marriages, divorces, children, relocations, careers, etcetera, to overcome in order to still keep in touch, but more than that, these are people who have known me for upwards of three decades and still like me!

To have such humorous, forgiving, generous, dedicated, and loving people in my life is truly a blessing.

It’s sad when people grow out of a friendship—for whatever reason, but it’s also easy. Losing touch happens all the time! Your priorities shift, your days (weeks, months, years!) grow shorter the older you get, and new acquaintances replace old ones.

I hear people say frequently, “Ugh, why would I want to revisit high school?”
Maintaining friendships isn’t about living in the past. It’s about bringing a little bit of your past with you into the future. Experiencing new things to share with old friends.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to meet new people. I like that the new friend gets the current me. They get the ever improving, forty-five years in the works, updated version. I like that they don’t know I used to be fifty pounds lighter, or that I flunked out of college the first time, or that I have fake teeth because I fell asleep driving and crashed my car. But I also love that my old friends know all of those things and have chosen to stay in my life.

I’d like the luxury of reposting this same blog every ten to fifteen years. To acknowledge the old friends and the ones who will be old by then.

(This blog is a day late due to social obligations. I hope you don’t mind. I know I’m okay with it!)