Last night three of my co-workers and myself went out to an early dinner. We ate Italian. I am not sure there is anything better than getting together with a group of girls and eating and laughing your way through two hours. OK "anything better" might be a slight exaggeration. It was just plain fun. We spent a lot of time talking about work, of course, but it wasn't so much the topic of conversation as it was the conversation itself. You see a different side of people when you get together in social circumstances. When you put off the professionalism and work persona and are just friends sharing life.
Growing up, friends were hard to keep. When you move every two or three years it isn't easy to keep up with everybody. I made a few friends in high school, but then we parted ways, life happened for all of us and now the only updates I see are on Facebook. My first two experiences in college yielded no lasting relationships either. When I went to nursing school, I found perhaps the best friend I have ever had. I was a in a two year program and during our second year a group of LPN students would be accepted to finish their RN degree. Laura was an LPN and perhaps the smartest person I know. She also has a talent for cataloging the largest amount of random facts in her brain and is capable of pulling them out in an instant to contribute to any conversation. On top of that, she is funny.
Moving from Florida was difficult for many reasons; one of them being I had to leave my friend behind. We went through her being married and me being single. Her and I both being single. Her being married again and me her maid of honor. Then me still single and her having children. Finally us both married, but only her with children. She was my matron of honor. I was present for the birth of her first child until she had to have a cesarean. I babysat for that child and then for the next one as well. I would spend the night with them very regularly. They accepted me as a part of their family. Today I am still known as Aunt Mally.
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| Laura as my matron of honor! |
Distance may have decreased the time we spent together and even the amount of time we talked, but Laura is a friend that you feel like you just saw yesterday every time you are together. Returning to Florida brings more than the blessing of our own church. It brings me back to my friend. Our stations in life are still different. She is married with two kids doing the wife, working professional, "soccer mom" thing. I am a Pastor's wife, working and playing with grandchildren. It doesn't matter, it is like I never left. She texts me daily to see how many boxes I have packed and how much furniture I have sold. She picks me up when I am worried about a job, a place to live and any other concern for that given day.
As excited as I am to be near Laura, I know I have to make a sacrifice to get that. I have to leave behind the friends here who have done these same things for me the last three years. Friends who have supported us through every joy and trial. Friends we have eaten with, laughed with and cried with. My heart hopes these people will be with us a long time. It will require effort on both our parts. I hope I have been as much of a blessing to them as they have been to me. Fellowship, true fellowship is so very important in life. Everyone needs someone to call friend. Not a co-worker, not an acquaintance, but a true friend. Someone who will support your decisions, stand by you in pain and suffering, rejoice when you are rejoicing. Someone who will eat Italian without consideration for the calories and laugh with you like a schoolgirl.
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