times change, but some things stay the same
I guess it's because I'm getting older, but I finally understand what 'they' mean by how fast life seems to go.
I've spent a significant time on the phone the past couple of days catching up with some of my oldest and dearest friends... Mainly, the roommates from my first year out in Tulsa. All of our lives have taken such different courses, and gone through so many stages. Between the 4 of us, 3 are married (I made 4, but we all know about how THAT went), one is in Nashville, and has twin girls, another lives about 40 minutes outside of Nashville and has 2 girls under the age of 4, and the last has one little guy and a daughter on the way, living her life in Pennsylvania. When we talk we spend a brief stint in the conversation discussing the struggles, and magic that WAS Tulsa. We used to take our lives so seriously back then, wondering who we would become and hoping beyond our fears that we would some day fall in love with good, God-loving men.
I am so proud of the women we have become. Granted, they've lived through some stages that I haven't yet (the diaper stage, the potty training stage, the role reversal of daughter-becoming-mother), but when we talk, we go back to being those silly girls that played cards on the apartment floor and bawled our eyes out listening to the Titanic soundtrack. (We literally spent about 4 days as a huddled mess, comforting each other through our tears, reliving the devastation we had seen on the big screen, and yearning for love that 'strong').
There IS something better about this stage though. Our memories are memorialized and frozen in time as something unique and special that we shared, but it was just a stepping stone in who we were to become. Our friendship wouldn't have gone as deep as it has if we hadn't weathered some tough stuff since... One's husband still over in Iraq, another living with a high-risk pregnancy having to give herself shots in the belly every night, one finding out she was having a multiple birth just 4 months into married life, and one having gone through a painful marriage and divorce.
It's great to reminisce, but it's even better to look ahead. Even though we'll never all live in the same town again, it's comforting to know that we'll always be in each others' lives. We are part of one another, and our journey together didn't end just because our lives veered from each other. We are all better women for having had the influence of the others.
I know I'll always have them.
And they'll always have me.
I've spent a significant time on the phone the past couple of days catching up with some of my oldest and dearest friends... Mainly, the roommates from my first year out in Tulsa. All of our lives have taken such different courses, and gone through so many stages. Between the 4 of us, 3 are married (I made 4, but we all know about how THAT went), one is in Nashville, and has twin girls, another lives about 40 minutes outside of Nashville and has 2 girls under the age of 4, and the last has one little guy and a daughter on the way, living her life in Pennsylvania. When we talk we spend a brief stint in the conversation discussing the struggles, and magic that WAS Tulsa. We used to take our lives so seriously back then, wondering who we would become and hoping beyond our fears that we would some day fall in love with good, God-loving men.
I am so proud of the women we have become. Granted, they've lived through some stages that I haven't yet (the diaper stage, the potty training stage, the role reversal of daughter-becoming-mother), but when we talk, we go back to being those silly girls that played cards on the apartment floor and bawled our eyes out listening to the Titanic soundtrack. (We literally spent about 4 days as a huddled mess, comforting each other through our tears, reliving the devastation we had seen on the big screen, and yearning for love that 'strong').
There IS something better about this stage though. Our memories are memorialized and frozen in time as something unique and special that we shared, but it was just a stepping stone in who we were to become. Our friendship wouldn't have gone as deep as it has if we hadn't weathered some tough stuff since... One's husband still over in Iraq, another living with a high-risk pregnancy having to give herself shots in the belly every night, one finding out she was having a multiple birth just 4 months into married life, and one having gone through a painful marriage and divorce.
It's great to reminisce, but it's even better to look ahead. Even though we'll never all live in the same town again, it's comforting to know that we'll always be in each others' lives. We are part of one another, and our journey together didn't end just because our lives veered from each other. We are all better women for having had the influence of the others.
I know I'll always have them.
And they'll always have me.
posted by Amber | 11:44 PM
1 Comments:
I think it's awesome that you've been able to catch up with those girls. Isn't it funny how life changes so much just over the course of a few years? Look at me for instance. I went from being "High School Homecoming Queen" straight into wife and mother within only a few months. Thank God I was ready for that and it was what I wanted.
I'm so proud of who you turned out to be Amber. You are so strong, wise, sweet and beautiful. You have every right to be proud of yourself, but yet you are so humble. That is so admirable.
Post a Comment
<< Home