In high school, you feel like you know it all. It's like you've got it all figured out. A quick chicken biscuit before first period and a Friday night spent under those magic lights. You're hanging out with your friends every weekend and thinking that it will always be that way. That those people will always be there. That life will always be this good, this safe, this familiar. You're walking through the hallways and waving at the pal from bio class. You're cheering at the pep rallies and vying for that state title. You're starring in that school play and going on those college visits. You walk across that stage with hope in your eyes.
It's bittersweet as you look around and realize all the people that have been there with you all along... it's all about to change.
Fast-forward a few years... Ya can't log onto any social media platform without realizing how much has changed in the years since. Yeah, you've changed, learned, grown, but this is more. This is the people around you. This is that odd way that life has of just moving on. And, it's not really sad and it's not always happy. It just is... it's life. Ya got the friends thriving in college. The friends starting new jobs. The friends living in new cities. The exes with new relationships. The friends with whole families. The engagements. The marriages. The babies and all the in-between. You start to think isn't it funny how life sorta just moves on. You sit next to someone in class and a few years later they're at the altar. You look up to someone on your team and now they're wearing a ring. Ya can't help but reminisce and wonder if they're thinking the same of you. It has an odd sometimes solemn feeling like you just can't quite explain. These people were once an everyday aspect of your life and now they're a surprising Facebook post. But... I guess there's nothing wrong with that. It's just the way life works. A small part of God's larger plan. That people evolve and life changes. That nothing is stagnant and everything is constantly changing. You don't notice it at first. It's slow but it's steady. Then it's fast and all at once. Before you know it you're calling yourself old before you're even legal. It's crazy really that every one person that's a part of your story has their own story. That just like your life is new so is theirs. That the world didn't stop and life pauses for no one. Every day we live out a new page written by The Lord and we get to look on as others do the same.
So don't let it get you down. Don't let the nostalgia swallow you. Let it give you pride. Don't focus on you but realize that you had the honor of being a small part in someone else's story. Know that The Lord's not finished yet. Enjoy the gift of God-like glimpses he gives us. The gift of following the stories that He already knows the ending to. Cherish every season of your life. Know that it goes on. Be thankful that slowly and steadily then fast and all at once you get to go on with it.
