Well, the last few days have been a bit more interesting.
It was a fairly good week with my classes. I'm not allowing myself to dare to hope that this is a good sign for things to come....there are any number of variables.
Yesterday some kids in my talkative class were discussing God and gynecologists among other things. I had to bite my lip because I cannot say ANYTHING unless a specific question is asked of me when regarding religious discussions. The most they asked me was "Are you a Baptist?" The female doctor was a different discussion. I'm not even sure how it got started. All I know is I told them to all get back to work. Sometimes all I can do is shake my head.
Among other things, an air conditioning vent grate fell on my head the other night. My husband was kindly installing some vent filters to try and weed out the smoke from upstairs and other rotten smells. I was sitting on the couch grading and he was standing on the couch next to me trying to get the grate off...because it would look tacky just to cover the outside of the vents with the filters. Next thing I know, I'm wacked in the forhead, I see a scratch form on my glasses, white paint flecks are on my sure and a vent grate is resting on my arm. Now I have a Harry Potter mark on my forehead and bruises down my arm.
Today I'm attending the wedding of a long-time friend. It brings all sorts of memories to mind, and all sorts of hurts too. It's amazing to see how lives go in different directions, and why I know God has different plans for everyone, how much it hurts. It was fun to eat dinner with them last night and see how happy they were and remember my own fun weekend five months ago! And then Ashley, who was also there and another dear friend of the same about to be bride, started bringing up some of the pictures she found..... I dread seeing some of them.
The friendship started around 5th or 6th grade. Melissa started to attend the church that Ashley and I did and Ashley and I had become friends by that point. There were some other girls involved in our little group too. That was quite a first year of friendship we went through....an interesting AWANA year, and some entertaining slumber parties. A lot of our activities centered around AWANA since that was the only time we were all together except for Sunday School, which I think may have also been a unique experience for all of us that year. In the Spring we went to a quiz meet and won, and had a slumber party to celebrate. The next two years we entered the youth group and continued on. Being pre-teen girls, there were all sorts of ups and downs amongst members. By ninth grade, the group was sort of really down to Ashley, Mel, myself, and Melissa's brother. (someone of that time please correct me if my memory fails me) This was my last full year in Longview, the year Melissa and her brother, my then boyfriend, started attending a private school after being home-schooled while Ashley and I started high school, and the year our home-church really started to disintegrate. Ashley, Mel, and I had stuck through JV Awana and a bit of Varsity Awana together which was one reason we became a very close trio. We had quite the times.
I moved away after they threw me a somewhat surprise morning going-away bash at the New-Year's Eve lock-in (one of the best nights of my life and the most fun). I came back and visited the next August, the next May for Chad's graduation, and the next New-Year's Eve. That was an interesting visit... and finally back again in February for Heritage weekend. Melissa and Chad had started at LeTourneau that year and I stayed with Melissa. Melissa worked for my mom in Colorado and lived with us the next summer. .We then came back to Longview for me to start school and I was living in the same suite as Melissa. Here I shall end my story though with simply saying how much I discovered our lives had gone in different directions. Ashley was still a long-distance contact as she was in school at NWern LA. but Mel and Chad and I had really parted ways--and it was a hard experience for me with starting college. A lot of things had happened that I had not realized. Suffice it to say, when you have problems with a friend and you have hurts, talk them over. Some people are very good at hiding things (I'm better than some of you would guess), yet those same people may not realize what their closest friends hide from them too.
The friendship didn't go away...it just became a lot less, more acquaintance-ish. The Plankeye song, "Goodbye" brought tears to my eyes a lot that year everytime I heard it. It's hard going from a close friendship to the occasional hello. However, things did get a little bit better as we each had our own circle of friends and we put the hard past behind us. She celebrated at my wedding with me and I shall do the same at hers today. and two others of the JrHigh circle of friends shall be there today also. So it'll be very very interesting.
I'm going to start doing more than tear up in a moment here, so I shall end my post. to those people my freshman year who held me up, and to Ashley too for always being a listening ear during some of the hardest time that first year of college, Thank-you. You all taught me a lot about friendship and being God's arms and ears that year--John, the BAB's, Sunny, ....thanks. and While some of us have already started to go separate ways, let's please never lose touch. Thank you Lindsay! (oh yeah, I need to do that update)
Posted by Anna at October 8, 2005 11:53 AM | TrackBack