A male student (wise beyond his years) came into my room today and was quite upset. When I asked what was going on, he replied, "why do people not understand how to be good friends?" I kind of giggled and said "I thought we'd talked about how having so many friends is overrated?!" Now, most of me was joking but in all reality, I look back to high school and think of how many friends I wanted so desperately to have.
You remember high school...popular crowd, jocks, nerds, band geeks, bad kids, and so on. Now maybe your high school was different but at the time (at least for me- and I think most girls) you try pretty hard to belong to a group that you think is somehow "better". I fell into the band geek group. Don't get me wrong. I LOVED being in band and making the friendships that I was lucky enough to make. Band is one of my fondest memories from school and still talk to some of those high school buddies. I think part of me always wanted to be part of the "in crowd" though. Maybe it was the clothes they wore or the way they acted, but part of me wanted to be like them. Looking back now, I realize that was completely silly and I was lucky to have the friends I did. I was just too immature to realize it at the time.
But this student really made me think...Do people really not know how to be good friends?
I have never been great at keeping in touch. I'm awful at it. It's not on purpose (and I apologize if I haven't gotten back to you...Amy/Ashley/Heather/Brooke/Jacque/Big/and so on...) I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people and over the years, have lost many friendships due to my lack of effort or interest or whatever it may be. And I don't blame these people. If I was the type of friend that needed to talk to people on a regular basis to remain friends, I wouldn't be friends with me either.
So I know now that I am the type that doesn't talk for months and then talks your ear off for hours. It's just how I am...right or wrong.
Tonight, I was, again, lucky enough to catch up with a friend that has become very dear to me. Her and I have many things in common. We are both teachers, around the same age, married to teachers, and our boys are only about 3 weeks apart in age; not to mention in the same fork in the road in life stages. It was so nice to just have an hour or so to catch up, see how things are going and know that I'm not the only one in this boat. I appreciate her friendship and hope that as the years pass that we can remain friends- even if we aren't neighbors anymore.
I guess the over all moral of the story tonight is to take a break from your organizing, grading, planning, or whatever else you have going on, and catch up with a friend. I have so many more that need some long talks on the phone that over the next few weeks, I'd like to get back in contact with. I hope you take the time to do the same.
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