My life is amazing

Yesterday was a great day for me. If I were to rank it on a scale of 1-10, it would probably be around a 9, trailing behind memorable "firsts" (9.5) and life changing experiences like getting into Rice, a great spiritual revelation, etc. (10). The day started with actually having interesting and challenging things to do at work. In the afternoon Robyn told me that she had mailed me something and that I couldn't open it until my birthday. While I have no idea what it is yet, just knowing that you mean enough to someone that she is willing to go through the trouble of mailing a birthday present to you is special, and meant a lot to me.

That was then followed by getting to see some of my best friends by going to Olive Garden and then bowling afterward. Looking back, it was nothing spectacular, but there were some friends that I hadn't seen in a very long time that I had thought I might have permanently lost contact with since it's been about two years since I've seen them, like Steph and Michelle, so it was good to have those relationships resurrected. I also noticed how diverse the personalities in my youth group are, and it was interesting to see how many different paths God had taken each of us on. Some of us were at prestigious universities, others at community college and working full time during the year. Some of us were still very strong in our faiths, others were struggling, and others, like me, seem to be somewhere in the middle, but it was encouraging to see that we were all still trying.

I really hope that I can spend more time with that group, perhaps my closest friends from high school, this summer. As more and more of us drift away from Austin, it will be harder and harder each year to get everyone together. I've already noticed this in trying to put together a birthday party to celebrate my 20th birthday this weekend. About 1/3 of the people that I wanted to come have told me that they wish they could, but they are in other cities, or other states for the summer, or for the entire year. As much as my life has begun to revolve around Houston instead of Austin, many of my friends are beginning to establish their lives away from home, making it difficult to stay in touch outside of occassional emails and facebook messages.

I took a class on the science of interpersonal relationships this spring, and one thing that I learned was just how temporary human relationships can be. I look at who my closest friends are now, and only about 1/5 of them are people that I knew even 2 years ago. Robyn, the person I talk to the most aside from my brother, I've only known for about 10 months. Last Saturday, when I thought about who my groomsmen would be if I got married today, only two of the people I was considering were people that I knew more than 2 years ago.

So what is to say that these relationships won't still be around 3 or 4 years from now? I'm half way through college now, and I wonder how many of my friendships I'll be able to keep going as strong as they are now. Already one of my best friends, Kyle, has left Rice. I feel like I'm making a good effort to keep that friendship really strong, but if he wasn't still living in Houston and had instead moved away to another state, I don't know how well I would be able to do that.