Friends and Priorities...

I'm not sure how it happened.  Julie lives outside Atlanta, and of course I live near Boston.  Once I moved north, it became difficult to see each other.  But we managed.  I worked in Atlanta for a couple years, and seeing Julie was a nice benefit of having to fly every week.  We were in each other's weddings.  We went to Disneyworld for our 30th birthdays.  When I got pregnant the first time, she flew up to visit, bringing me a suitcase full of maternity clothes.  We emailed and called.  And then...

Eight years flew by!  We were both shocked when we realized how long it had been since we had seen each other.  Kids and jobs and school and money and having to travel to visit long-distance family somehow meant that traveling to visit friends became a lower priority.  Every now and then we'd start a conversation about how we needed to plan a trip, and for one reason or another, it didn't happen.  The conversation started back up again in the Fall, as we approached our fortieth birthdays.  We had celebrated 16 together, and 21, and 30...we should really do something for 40.  The conversation wasn't going anywhere, and I finally just said, I'm coming to you!  I am so happy I did.

Julie is my best friend from high school.  I met her in geometry class our freshman year.  Let's just say I helped her through it.  ;-)  We became fast friends and have stayed that way ever since.  There's something so special about friends you make early in life.  Julie knows my family, she knows how I did in school, we worked at the same ice cream shop, we talked about all the big events (first kiss, first loves, first...), we skipped school and went to the beach, we got in trouble together, and we helped each other make it through the hell that high school can be.  We went to different colleges but visited and kept in touch.  A couple years after college, I was her maid of honor.  A few years after that, she was mine.

We spent this past weekend talking.  And talking.  About everything.  Kids, marriage, jobs, home, family, friends...  It was as if no time had passed.  But of course it had, and I don't want to let that much time go by again.  We let the distance between us and the busyness of life keep us apart, and I am determined not to let that happen again.  Friends are the best stuff of life, and it's so important to cherish them.  

Me and Julie at twenty-one...

...and here we are at forty.