learning to embrace change

little me as a senior in high school - 2008

Most of my life I have struggled with change.
I hold on to the familiar and tend to turn a cold shoulder to things that I'm not used to.
These feelings however have evolved in the last few years.
I'd say mostly since I graduated from high school and moved away to college on my own.
Maybe it is because that was one of the biggest changes in my life or maybe it is all the changes that have happened since.
I'm realizing how much can change in just a few months let alone an entire year.
I have embraced changes in my life with open arms more than I ever have recently and while some of them are harder than others, all of them have always been for the best, really good for me even.

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I think the hardest change that I am still trying to learn is the change that occurs between two people when they live far away from each other.
Some people say distance makes the heart grow fonder.
To be honest, I'm not sure I really believe in that.
Maybe distance makes the heart grow weary would be a better way to put.
With family it is completely different.
Even when we are all living so far apart, when we do see each other again, no matter how much time has gone by, things seem to pick up right where they left off.
It doesn't seem to put such a strain on family bonds but with friends it is a different story.
It takes a lot of effort and communication to keep a friendship alive, at least in my experience it does.
Even when you do that, sometimes it isn't enough.

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I'm learning that some people grow apart when they aren't together in the same place at the same time.
Sometimes it isn't only the distance that seems to separate but also the different stages of life you are in.
I love the stage of my life that I am in right now -
Newly married and finishing my college degree.
But this stage doesn't always mesh with friends who are single or friends who have babies and while I know this is the exact stage I meant to be in and is perfect for Nic and I, it still hard knowing there is something separating me from them, especially friends who are single.

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If I haven't already lost you yet haha, what I'm getting at is that in the midst of all of this,
I've also learned that it is okay for relationships to change,
for friendships to grow apart a little bit.
Because hopefully, if it is meant to be, something in your life will bring you back together, perhaps finally being back in the same stage of life someday.
And maybe, just maybe, it will feel like time never went by.
I'm learning to embrace the changes in my life with open arms.
They make me stronger!
So far it has left me the happiest I have ever been and nothing is better than that.