My friend is moving. Not to the next town or even a neighboring state, but clear across the country. And I just realized that I haven't lost a friend to a long distance move in many years, not since I was a kid actually. My best friend Emily moved to Florida in the middle of kindergarten. We kept in touch off and on for several years, but eventually lost touch. Then I moved to Arizona after kindergarten, and back to Michigan a couple months into 3rd grade. And of course after high school graduation, several friends went off to various far away locations. Now we keep in touch via Facebook. How times have changed. After 6th grade I moved 20 minutes away to another county and it felt like the biggest deal ever. My friends and I used to write letters to each other, you know with paper and pen? And get in trouble for racking up the long distance charges on our landlines.
Anyway, I've forgotten what it's like, and while I am very happy and excited for the new adventures my friend and her family are facing, I'm sad for me. There's a part of me that selfishly want her to stay. It's not like we'll have much occasion for visiting, with 3000 miles between us. I know things are different now than they were when I was a kid, and we truly will be able to easily stay in touch via telephone, text, and Facebook. But that is such a far cry from huddling together over hot chocolate at Starbucks. We've known each other for years, but over the past year have really gotten to know each other. I feel like we've just cracked the book on our friendship, and now she's leaving. Our girls have been friends since kindergarten. They have so much fun, I feel like they are their truest selves when they're together, if that makes sense. The two of them are planning to start a restaurant together some day. They've already been creating the menu. I hope they keep in touch, I really do. And my friend's husband has been my life-saving chiropractor for the past year. I will feel the loss of her entire family.
Maybe some people do this kind of thing easily. The truth is I'm not sure how I'll deal with it. My friend's departure date is not set in stone yet, so I'm sort of lingering on denial just a little bit. We got in Starbucks twice this week (not easy to do!), and hopefully we manage to squeeze in several more trips for hot chocolate before she leaves. I will throw myself into helping her pack up her house or whatever else she needs and worry later about missing her. Then I will plan to visit her and put off missing her even longer.
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