Friends
I grew up in a really small town and while I cherish the friendships I developed as a kid and as a teen there is something uniquely circumstantial about them. The things we had in common back then were age and proximity to one another. I think this is especially true when I was a kid and the things I liked were TLC, the Spice Girls, Hanson and rollerblading. When you're 10 in a small town, the world is simple because the choices are rarely overwhelming.
The older I got the more that changed to a degree and I started friendships with the few people in town that were around my age that liked music, writing, and creativity. I think the first time this concept dawned on me was when I started to gravitate to the director Kevin Smith and his brand of comedy and storytelling. He released a DVD of a live Q&A he did and I invited all my friends over to watch it. My closest friend since Kindergarten made a comment in passing after it was over to the effect of "Please don't make me sit through something like that again." You can't be mad at people you love because they don't love the same things you do especially when you've spent so much of your lives together and are engrained in each other's memories but, for me, that moment made me see friendships in a new way.
Around the time I went to college I gravitated to people that felt familiar so in some ways circumstantial friendships are not something you're going to avoid. However, I did find a few friends that I picked because I loved things about them and the way they saw the world. It became less about purely having people to be friends with and more about building quality relationships with people who see the world through a similar lens that I do.
None of these things make one friendship better over another and all of the people I'm thinking of will always have a place in my heart no matter how or why they came into my life. As I continue to get older I am realizing that I have foolishly thought that's where the evolution of friendships ended. When I graduated college and moved in with Ben our lives became engulfed with building a life together and trying to figure out how to be actual adults. I lost track of a lot of friends and now living in Skowhegan I don't see a lot of these people on a regular basis or even talk to them much. I felt like the older I got the less of a role that "friends" played in my life.
On days like today though it is easy to remember how friends play an important role in my life. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and nothing seemed to be going my way and I was just dark and stormy. Then I went home and got kisses from my dog and had a kelmat sandwhich that contained a special note to me and then got the most adorable picture of a beautiful little girl who I looked forward to meeting for many years before she was even conceived. It fills me with so much gratitude and makes me realize that there is something incredible waiting everyday for me to uncover it.
<3Katie
The older I got the more that changed to a degree and I started friendships with the few people in town that were around my age that liked music, writing, and creativity. I think the first time this concept dawned on me was when I started to gravitate to the director Kevin Smith and his brand of comedy and storytelling. He released a DVD of a live Q&A he did and I invited all my friends over to watch it. My closest friend since Kindergarten made a comment in passing after it was over to the effect of "Please don't make me sit through something like that again." You can't be mad at people you love because they don't love the same things you do especially when you've spent so much of your lives together and are engrained in each other's memories but, for me, that moment made me see friendships in a new way.
Around the time I went to college I gravitated to people that felt familiar so in some ways circumstantial friendships are not something you're going to avoid. However, I did find a few friends that I picked because I loved things about them and the way they saw the world. It became less about purely having people to be friends with and more about building quality relationships with people who see the world through a similar lens that I do.
None of these things make one friendship better over another and all of the people I'm thinking of will always have a place in my heart no matter how or why they came into my life. As I continue to get older I am realizing that I have foolishly thought that's where the evolution of friendships ended. When I graduated college and moved in with Ben our lives became engulfed with building a life together and trying to figure out how to be actual adults. I lost track of a lot of friends and now living in Skowhegan I don't see a lot of these people on a regular basis or even talk to them much. I felt like the older I got the less of a role that "friends" played in my life.
On days like today though it is easy to remember how friends play an important role in my life. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and nothing seemed to be going my way and I was just dark and stormy. Then I went home and got kisses from my dog and had a kelmat sandwhich that contained a special note to me and then got the most adorable picture of a beautiful little girl who I looked forward to meeting for many years before she was even conceived. It fills me with so much gratitude and makes me realize that there is something incredible waiting everyday for me to uncover it.
<3Katie
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