“Call when you need something!” direct quote from Mom, Pops, Grandma, and Grandpa.

And I do. I only call when I need something.

I’m here at college figuring my life out. I’m here busy as hell, I’m swamped with homework constantly, I’m still trying to get time management down, I’m trying to figure out how to stay motivated and productive, I’m trying (unsuccessfully) to stay on top of some sort of gym schedule, and also shower regularly. So yeah, I only call when I need something.

The other day I was walking around a craft store and I was checking out some sewing stuff. I don’t sew often, but I used to sew with my grandma when I was younger. Any repairs I needed as a kid, any fashion designs that came to mind, grandma was my answer. So here I am, trying to figure out what thread I should use and the only person I can think of is my grandma, so I called. I needed her advice.

This led to about an hour long conversation with my grandparents, I had my headphones in, and did some of my more hands on homework. I called when I needed something, and I ended up in a conversation that left me feeling a little less stressed. Talking to my grandparents about their travels and about all the new things in my life left me feeling like a weight had been lifted. But does this mean that I call every week? No.

My family knows that I love them and that I can’t always take time to stop and talk when I have so much going on. I also know that they have a million things to do too, packing, moving, taking my sister to her softball games, watching those games, traveling the country. I want to know about the home runs, I want to know about the neighbors in the camper over, but I can’t talk every day, and I hope that they can’t either.

I don’t want to miss out on life experiences because of my cell phone and I sure as hell don’t want my family to miss out on them because of their cell phones either. So many exciting things are happening right now for all of us! I can’t wait to hear about the things that they are doing, but I want them to do those things first.

We catch up when we need something. My parents call when they need things from me, “Can you help me work on this?”, “I need your tax information”, “Christmas is coming, what do you want for dinner?” and then we talk. Then we mention all those other things, “I got an A on my assignment”, “Your sister hit a home run last week.” It’s normal for my family. I have friends who feel bad when we don’t talk almost everyday, “Dude, you’re fine, I’m too busy to talk to you anyways,” my usual response.

I don’t reach out to others. Unless I need something. It’s not because I’m not thinking about you, or because I’m not interested in what’s going on in your life, I’m just busy working on mine at the moment too. And I hope that my family and friends are busy enough that they have tons to tell me next time one of us needs something from the other, because I want to hear all about it.

My family knows that I’m safe, they know I love them, and they know I’m busy, and, thankfully, they leave me alone.