"Everything happens for a reason... sometimes good things fall apart so better things can come together." ~Marilyn Monroe
Recently, I have been faced with the fact that you can't keep your friends with you forever. As much as we want to, we can't be roommates/neighbors/students forever. Eventually, we have to go our separate ways. People move, people graduate, people leave. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a control freak. I don't like change, and I don't like admitting defeat. So this is a whole new ballpark for me. Let's just say that I'm not enjoying it.
In the last few weeks, I have found out that two of my best friends are moving to different states. I'm pretty sure I threatened that if I found out that anyone else was moving I would lose it. I'm still sane, however, and my friends are still moving. I went through all the classic questions when something like this happens: Is there something I can do to help? Is there something I can do to stop it? Is it my fault? Why them? And, of course, what am I supposed to do? The eventual answer is that the only thing I can do is to be there for them and to deal with my own feelings later. So far it's worked, burying myself under school work and busying myself with the details of my friend's moves. Now, however, reality is starting to hit.
I have been very blessed to have a strong support system of friends to help me adjust and to keep me from going off the deep end. Even today I have had someone dragging me out of my room to make sure I was eating and not working myself to death on a paper I have due Monday. Especially in my apartment we have banded together to help absorb the shock of losing one of our own and start to adjust to a new life without her. I don't know what I would do without them. To anyone else who has had a friend move away, I would remind them of the friends that they have around them and tell them to lean on them for support, for it is what is getting me through.
Another thing that will get me through is that in our day and age, even people across state and country lines can connect through their phone screens. I can still talk to my friends every day, by texting and snapping and FaceTiming them. I can't go out to lunch with them, but I can FaceTime while I'm at lunch. Altogether, I'm grateful that I have met these people and that even though they're moving away I can still keep in touch with them through technology. They have had an impact on my life that I am going to try and not let distance diminish.
