Friends For Life

You know what the cool thing about friends you made in high school is? You can see them after 1, 2, maybe 3 years and pick up a conversation like it was a long lunch break senior year. Friends that you meet in high school can be placed in at least two groups. One, the people that you might recognize at your ten year reunion and then spend 15-20 minutes frantically trying to remember their names. And two, the ones you stay in touch with, invite to your weddings, and with whom you share the important and exciting times of you life.

My high school friends and I are many hours and states apart, but we still come back together every once in awhile to celebrate a wedding or baby or a holiday where we are all in town together. And I have noticed at these gatherings we have the unique ability to re-unite and re-live precious memories like they were yesterday. We're all so different. We were different in high school, but the same as well. We were all pretty smart, we played in the band together, ate lunch together and had the same social "problems" like all teens at the time. But, now we have graduated from different colleges, chosen new lives and families and have spread out across the globe. Yet, we all smile and celebrate each other just like we always did.

This continued connection wouldn't likely be as strong without technology. Email is an amazing thing: it takes five friends and makes them able to connect to the people they shared their most intimate secrets with for the past 9 years. In this rushed crazy world that we live in where each second counts and everyone is concentrating on their own lives, it is pretty special to be able to take a few moments and share and encourage and comfort those who you've known "your whole life." I know that I celebrate and cry and pray for these friends as they tell me about their lives hundreds of miles away, and look forward to the story they will tell of life's next exciting journey.

I plan to go to my 10 year high school reunion and I hope that I can remember the names of all of those people who I shared time with...but I know four others who will be there that I recognize, rush up to, hug and ask "How's the family?"

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