When you graduated from high school did anyone tell you that you and your friends would drift apart? That it would become very hard for you to maintain those relationships you had with your high school friends. I know I have. I understood very well that growing up means growing apart. Several times in the various relationships I have with my friends. There have been strains but there has also been a lot of strength.

Graduating from high school a lot of us stayed local. But even with staying local we grew apart a bit. Several years later I can look back on these times and see that we all were growing up. We not all of us fully fell off the face of the earth. If one of us did everyone was on top of it. Unless you deliberately do not want to be our friend then we will do everything to make sure you are included.

I feel so very lucky to have the group of friends that I have. I have been friends with some since elementary school, some since middle school, and some since high school. In fact, I am even lucky enough to have my own family included in that circle of people. We don’t need to talk every day but we do our best to hang out as often as we can. It doesn’t need to be anything big. We are pretty simple people. Okay maybe not the case when all of us are together at one, but you get the point.

We all have very different personalities. Sometimes those things do clash but most of the time the opposites do attract. We have come a long way since graduating high school. We are all still figuring out our paths in life. What makes me happy is that our paths have still lead all of us to being together.

Many people have said that they would rather have a few “real” friends than a million acquaintances or “fake” friends. Looking at that statement I genuinely feel that is just another statement that is not at all applicable to my friends. We are as real as it can get. Sure, we all have moments where we aren’t ourselves. With that said we also know when someone is not being their “normal” self. I find it so fascinating that we all can end up on the same page about certain things.

This is just a small testament to the amazing friendships that I have. Whether we talk all the time or talk every so often we have all cared for each other in all stages of growing up. I hope that we can continue these relationships into the rest of our adult years.