November 29, 2022

There are a lot of people that I was great friends with in high school that I’m not even friends on Facebook with anymore. There are also a couple of odd people I’m still friends with on Facebook even though I didn’t spend much time with them in high school. Facebook is a poor place to define a relationship, I guess. There are, however, a set of people from high school that I’m still deeply connected to. I still make an effort to see them, and they still make an effort to see me. At the end of the day, every relationship lives or dies by the amount of effort put into them (from both parties).

Friends forever is a lofty statement. It is a great sentiment. So is “Till death do us part,” but even that falls apart. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to spell out doom and gloom for my friendships. I WANT them to be forever. I worry that they won’t be. Life changes. People move. Priorities shift. I want to keep making that effort. I want to put more effort into it than I have been. I want to be a friend that I want.

I love vulnerability. I LOVE IT! When I can be vulnerable with people, and when people can be vulnerable with me it brings me so much joy. Seeing the true emotion of people can’t be beat, even if the true emotion is something rather negative. It is like a glimpse into their eternal selves. I can see their humanity with so much clarity, and with that comes so much love. I want to be vulnerable for my friends, and be a safe space for them to be vulnerable as well.

There is a saying that nothing lasts forever. That’s true, nothing will last forever, but that can be positive just as much as it can be negative. Bad times won’t last forever. Neither will good times. Relationships won’t stay in their current state. They may very well grow. That current state didn’t last because it became something better. And if there is an afterlife, which I personally believe there is, then we will have a lot of time to grow into something better. How we are now won’t last forever.

I want to be friends forever.