I’ve recently been feeling the weight of old friendships that I haven’t kept in touch with well over the last several years. I’ve been blessed in having many friendships that we can go months and months without talking to each other and pick right back up where we left off when we see each other again. However, if you take this to the extreme, you can start taking it for granted, and those friends you thought you were so close to are no longer so close anymore.
I’ve just come upon 4 years since I moved out of my parent’s house for the first time ( I did move back for about a year within those 4 years). It’s finally starting to hit me how much life that really is. So many friends back home who have had countless memories with their other friends who are with them. And I myself experiencing a lot of life with the people I’m around. It’s a good, normal part of life. Living life where you’re at, not where you’re not.
However, there are so many people who have been part of my life that I couldn’t bear to leave behind as only a memory and not a current friend. Some people don’t have this problem and simply move from place to place making new friends and not worrying about the old. The friendships I’ve made with others are too important for me to do this. My old friends have had such a huge impact on my life. How could I simply leave them behind?
A challenge, that I don’t even know if I’ve accepted yet, is to text or call (99.99% going to be a text) at least one of them a day. This actually seems extremely daunting to me. I don’t even text my only family once a day. Once a week if it were a good week, but often only because they initiate it first.
It’s something I want to do, but feels impossible with the busyness of life. It also feel shard because I know that I can’t keep up that many friendships while I’m away, so texting them really will have to be a general check-in on their life and not much more, but how do you communicate that to them?
“Hi! I miss you and appreciate your friendship. I wanted to say hi because I care too much to lose touch, but also realize I can’t keep up friendships with people where I am, and maintain all the friendships where I’ve come from. But I wanted to send this message anyway, just because I couldn’t bear to see our friendship fade away with the distance.”
…Now that I write it out, that’s actually not terrible.
We shall see. If you’re tempted at all to join this challenge, you should. Write down at least for a week or two, a different person you want to text each day to see how they are. Send that text out and maintain those friendships!