As is probably evident from my recent entries, I have had a lot of reasons to think about friends lately. Today, I hung out with one of the people who used to be a frequent topic of this blog. Tori leaves for the Navy on Monday and even though we haven't hung out in months, I was determined to see her one more time before she leaves. The thing is, it doesn't matter how long we go without talking. I will always care about her and I will always be interested in how her life is going. She is one of those people who have come into my life and left an impression so crucial that there is no way that I will ever forget about her. Of the thousands of people I have met in my lifetime, only a handful of them have left that kind of mark. Most of them have been written about here. Some have not.
When I find myself thinking about old friends, there's always this feeling of longing in my chest. It doesn't matter that most of my 'old' friends are that way for a reason. I always miss something about our friendship. Take Morgan, for example. I believe I've written about her in the past but if not she was my very best friend in seventh grade and partially through eighth. We still talked and hung out in ninth grade but we just weren't as close. There are many things that I miss about my friendship with Morgan. One of which is how we wrote stories together. We also spent a lot of time watching youtube videos and locking sims in burning buildings. In two and a half years of close friendship, I think we only ever had one argument. For me in junior high, that was quite an accomplishment.
One of my old friends is getting married toward the end of this month. Clair and I have known each other since junior high as well, but our friendship always happened in spurts. We'd talk for a couple weeks and then we wouldn't think about each other for a couple of months. One of the girls going to her wedding was also one of my very close friends in junior high. I think I hung out with Carrine as much as I did because I wanted to be as much of a girly girl as she was. I wanted to wear make up and get my nails done and dye my hair. Plus, she introduced me to myspace and energy drinks. She moved in eighth grade and I haven't seen her in years. It will be interesting to see if/how any interaction with her will go down at Clair's wedding.
Ian and I often end up talking about people that we knew in junior high. The thing is, in the community we live in it is inevitable that we will run into those people for the rest of our lives if we stay here. I think that's a good thing, because I will always care for them a little bit. As awesome as facebook is, a random wall post is never as fun as running into your old best friend at the store and having an impromptu catch up session. Yes, there are people that I wish I wouldn't ever have to run into but the awesome thing about growing up is that we learn to ignore those people and they ignore us in return.
The friends that I think it will be far more difficult to remain in contact with are the ones who were my teachers first. There are two, really, that I have learned to consider as much more than my teachers. Mr. T, whose class required me to begin writing in a blog once a week five years ago, served as a mentor and someone for me to talk to all the way through high school. I haven't spoken to him in a while, but I know that I'll find my way back into his classroom at some point this fall. It always happens. I'll always be curious to see how he is doing.
Miss Merrell is also someone that I hope I will remain in contact with for a long time. She helped me through a lot of difficult things during my senior year and I absolutely love that whenever I visit her our conversations drag on for hours. However, she does not have a facebook like Mr. T and does not really respond to emails very often. Still, I plan to continue bugging her from time to time. She was the best teacher I had in high school and definitely one of the best that I've ever had... But she is much more than that. She is definitely someone that I would consider a friend. As I'm sure many of her students do.
So... I don't know. Here are my thoughts on a few people that I haven't mentioned in a while (or ever.) I wonder if they would find it strange to know that I was thinking about them tonight. I'm sure some of them would be because we haven't spoken in so long. I think others would just be happy about it. I'm not sure. Either way, four of them have knowledge of this blog's existence. So hello, if any of you happen to read this. :)
