Oct. 18, 2014
Back in Utah today, I met three good high school friends for lunch. I will meet two others next week. This is always a nurturing experience, as I love these girls so dearly. They were good girls and they are amazing, strong and good women. We often express our gratitude and amazement that we not only found each other back in 7th grade but that our friendships have remained through our adult years. Today, though, as I reminisced with A, who arrived before the other two, a profound thought came. Would anyone argue that high school years are turbulent, the time when we experience deep insecurity and self-centeredness as we try to figure out who we are and what we want? How is it, then, that the friends we make during that time are often friends for life? I don't know many people who go back to college reunions, but we go back to high school reunions, often until all the class members have passed on. I believe A nailed the answer: the choices we make in high school are pivotal; most significantly, the friends we choose quite literally determine who we will be as adults. As I swam the social sea of pre-teenhood, I mingled with various types of kids, some of whom were already making choices that would lead them in sad paths. How incredibly grateful I am to have gravitated to these friends, who ended up being a group of more than a dozen. They are smart, talented, successful, optimistic and wise. I am the person I am today in large part due to these blessed girls.
We were so busy enjoying each other yesterday that we forgot to take a picture. Gratitude journals have room for regrets, too.
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