"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
As much as I dreaded moving away from Sayville, Sachem turned out to be the experience of a lifetime for me. After being shy (yes, I was shy for once in my life) for a month or so, I became the Dhara I was known as throughout my Sachem years. Year after year, I kept in touch with pretty much the same people while still being "friends" with everyone in my year. Senior year came by quickly, and everyone promised to keep in touch. My friends that had graduated earlier kept in touch with each other, so I fell for the trap and strongly believed that I would also continue to be close to all of my friends even after June 2009. ...dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.
So if you are one of those lucky people that do keep in touch with everyone and still love all of your high school friends, then please stop reading. This won't really apply to you.
Just in case it isn't clear: I do not keep in touch with most of my friends from high school. Although FaceBook may say otherwise, I have only met up with six people from Sachem after graduating, and one of them is my wonderful, wonderful guidance counselor. As I started my life at Rutgers, I was nervous but happy to know that Peter would be there by my side to make everything a little bit easier. Freshman year turned out to be amazing: the friends I made, the conversations I had with Peter about high school, the experiences...everything was wonderful. As the year came to an end, I was excited to come back to Long Island knowing that going back would be a lot more exciting than it had been the previous year. ...boy was I wrong. For the most part, I stopped talking to my freshman year friends. There was a whole new group of people waiting to be in my life and then again I had the time of my life. Believe it or not, I expected junior year to be amazing because I assumed I would still be with my friends from sophomore year. Clearly, I was missing the pattern.
Once again, I have a whole new group of people in my life...people that I've known for awhile, but never really considered "close friends". I absolutely love them, and these friendships are totally different than the rest. They are based on values, principles, lifestyles, etc. As we cook together and spend most of our free time chatting away (or going into the woods looking for some fun adventures), we plan out our dream futures...where our kids will be best friends, have sleepovers all the time, call us Masi, Mama and our lives will be perfect. We'll all be living near each other, cooking at each others homes and all that corny stuff. But most importantly, we'll always be there for each other. When we snap out of these dream world and back into reality, we realize that most of this won't happen. God knows where we'll be living, who we'll be with, who our friends will be, etc. Still, I see so many people graduating year after year promising to keep in touch and stay friends forever (obviously that's a little easier with FaceBook, smartphones, and all of that good stuff). Don't they get it?! It's not going to happen, not the way they want it to anyway.
But rather than becoming a pessimistic person, I think my current friends have unknowingly taught me something...it doesn't matter how little or often we keep in touch as long as we're really there for each other. Yes, it's true that we won't be able to text each other 24/7, post random videos on each others walls or stay up until 6 knowing that we have a long day ahead of us. There is so much more that we can do! We can be present at each others' weddings watching them as they begin a new chapter in their lives. We can send holiday cards to each others' children to express our love towards them. We can lend a shoulder in times of need...basically be there for all of the important things in life.
Although I know that I will only see my friends "once in a blue moon" years from now, I truly hope that I can still be a part of their lives, and have them be a part of mine. For those of you that I end up not keeping in touch with, I want to let you know that I'll still always care about what's going on in your lives. And I apologize for being so awful at keeping in touch, it's never been my thing! More than that, I wish you the best of luck with everyone. A lot of you are graduating this year :( and I hope that you begin to live the life you always dreamed up of. Yeah, there will be a lot of obstacles in the way, but remember that we really are here for you to listen and to help in any way possible. For those of you that will still be at RU next year, let's stay friends, let's keep in touch!
I guess I don't really know what the point of this post was (as always!) but I just wanted to put my thoughts down somewhere. After seeing a friend I hadn't seen in six months and falling right back into our usual conversations, I realized that sometimes it's not about the FaceBook posts, the birthday wishes or the phone calls. Sometimes, it's just about how it feels with a friend after so long...how normal it feels and how little effort it requires to catch up. That's exactly what I can't wait for with most of you.
I thank you for being a part of my life now, hope to know what's going on with you in the future, and can't wait to create more memories (and take more pictures!) with you all. I love you!
So long <3
As much as I dreaded moving away from Sayville, Sachem turned out to be the experience of a lifetime for me. After being shy (yes, I was shy for once in my life) for a month or so, I became the Dhara I was known as throughout my Sachem years. Year after year, I kept in touch with pretty much the same people while still being "friends" with everyone in my year. Senior year came by quickly, and everyone promised to keep in touch. My friends that had graduated earlier kept in touch with each other, so I fell for the trap and strongly believed that I would also continue to be close to all of my friends even after June 2009. ...dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.
So if you are one of those lucky people that do keep in touch with everyone and still love all of your high school friends, then please stop reading. This won't really apply to you.
Just in case it isn't clear: I do not keep in touch with most of my friends from high school. Although FaceBook may say otherwise, I have only met up with six people from Sachem after graduating, and one of them is my wonderful, wonderful guidance counselor. As I started my life at Rutgers, I was nervous but happy to know that Peter would be there by my side to make everything a little bit easier. Freshman year turned out to be amazing: the friends I made, the conversations I had with Peter about high school, the experiences...everything was wonderful. As the year came to an end, I was excited to come back to Long Island knowing that going back would be a lot more exciting than it had been the previous year. ...boy was I wrong. For the most part, I stopped talking to my freshman year friends. There was a whole new group of people waiting to be in my life and then again I had the time of my life. Believe it or not, I expected junior year to be amazing because I assumed I would still be with my friends from sophomore year. Clearly, I was missing the pattern.
Once again, I have a whole new group of people in my life...people that I've known for awhile, but never really considered "close friends". I absolutely love them, and these friendships are totally different than the rest. They are based on values, principles, lifestyles, etc. As we cook together and spend most of our free time chatting away (or going into the woods looking for some fun adventures), we plan out our dream futures...where our kids will be best friends, have sleepovers all the time, call us Masi, Mama and our lives will be perfect. We'll all be living near each other, cooking at each others homes and all that corny stuff. But most importantly, we'll always be there for each other. When we snap out of these dream world and back into reality, we realize that most of this won't happen. God knows where we'll be living, who we'll be with, who our friends will be, etc. Still, I see so many people graduating year after year promising to keep in touch and stay friends forever (obviously that's a little easier with FaceBook, smartphones, and all of that good stuff). Don't they get it?! It's not going to happen, not the way they want it to anyway.
But rather than becoming a pessimistic person, I think my current friends have unknowingly taught me something...it doesn't matter how little or often we keep in touch as long as we're really there for each other. Yes, it's true that we won't be able to text each other 24/7, post random videos on each others walls or stay up until 6 knowing that we have a long day ahead of us. There is so much more that we can do! We can be present at each others' weddings watching them as they begin a new chapter in their lives. We can send holiday cards to each others' children to express our love towards them. We can lend a shoulder in times of need...basically be there for all of the important things in life.
Although I know that I will only see my friends "once in a blue moon" years from now, I truly hope that I can still be a part of their lives, and have them be a part of mine. For those of you that I end up not keeping in touch with, I want to let you know that I'll still always care about what's going on in your lives. And I apologize for being so awful at keeping in touch, it's never been my thing! More than that, I wish you the best of luck with everyone. A lot of you are graduating this year :( and I hope that you begin to live the life you always dreamed up of. Yeah, there will be a lot of obstacles in the way, but remember that we really are here for you to listen and to help in any way possible. For those of you that will still be at RU next year, let's stay friends, let's keep in touch!
I guess I don't really know what the point of this post was (as always!) but I just wanted to put my thoughts down somewhere. After seeing a friend I hadn't seen in six months and falling right back into our usual conversations, I realized that sometimes it's not about the FaceBook posts, the birthday wishes or the phone calls. Sometimes, it's just about how it feels with a friend after so long...how normal it feels and how little effort it requires to catch up. That's exactly what I can't wait for with most of you.
I thank you for being a part of my life now, hope to know what's going on with you in the future, and can't wait to create more memories (and take more pictures!) with you all. I love you!
So long <3
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