Shared Experiences

Side note before we begin: Being home sick the past 2 days has given me an excessive amount of time to blog, so this streak of blogging a few consecutive days in a row will be short lived!

This past weekend was jam packed with seeing lots of old friends from high school and college and I loved it! I love that I have gotten to keep in touch with so many friends and that we're conveniently close by--more or less when you look at "close by" relatively.

Friday night was "Big Brother" night with Bonnie. I've talked about Shahrukh before and I love that me, Bonnie, and Shahrukh have become semi regular with hanging out again every few months. The 3 of us pick on each other like brother and sisters do, but after knowing for someone for 8 years that's bound to happen. It was great, as always, to catch up, reminisce, and just spend time together. And the biggest news is that Shahrukh is ENGAGED! He's getting married next summer and I can't wait to meet Safia! We had a little photo shoot in the parking lot, and as much as Shahrukh hates taking pictures, he makes for a good sport because he knows Bonster and I love to document time spent together :)

For comparison's sake; this was Junior Year of High school

And now 8 years later

I got to catch up with Annie over Starbucks on Saturday morning which was wonderful as always. I am so proud of her-she got into PT school and is moving up to Maine by the end of this month to start her program! I'm going to miss seeing her on visits home, but I know that this is something she's wanted to do for a while and I admire her huge step of faith to move her life up north for a couple of years!

Thanks to Twitter, I got to hang out with some of my favorites from PC '05! Now, I love the Braves and all, but I love to tailgate and catch up with friends. Thankfully the impending rain didn't scare us off and we were only forced into our cars for a little bit. Two highlights of that afternoon: first, I realized that people actually do read my blog from time to time. Secondly, and this really did help me, but mid conversation someone pointed out that out of the 7 or so Alpha Gams that were there, only 2 of them had steady jobs/knew what they were doing with their lives. It made me realize that it's okay if I don't have it figured out because few people my age do and that was just what I've been needing to hear. The game was fun and the weather was perfect, but the company was the best part! (I sound so cheesy sometimes...)

Something else that I concluded was that it might not be so bad if I can't find a job in Chattanooga and move to Marietta/Atlanta area. I have lots of friend groups there and there are definitely more job opportunities in the big city than there are here. Like I said in my last post, I'm not only looking in Chattanooga anymore and I think I'm flexible enough to enjoy life wherever I am.

Okay, I know I've blogged a ton lately and they've been pretty long (so I commend you if you've made it all the way through these last few posts!), but I've been feeling particularly introspective lately I suppose. But what I realized that I loved about all of my friends is that we all have shared experiences that bring us together. Whether it's band in high school, sorority in college, camp and church for my Chattanooga friends, and the list goes on, those things are what brought us together and have kept our friendships strong over the years. With distance separating half of my friendships these days, I am so grateful that I can spend time with friends, catching up as if it were something we did on a regular basis. I am so so blessed to have friends and family that I can go through the ups and downs of life with and that they "get me" during those times. My life is abundant in true, lasting friendships and that is something that is so much more valuable than any job could ever be to me.