I went this morning to collect some odds and ends from some good friends who are retiring and leaving Egypt for good. We met on a weekend trip we took as part of a tour when we first arrived but our friendship really took root on a different weekend trip the following year. A twelve hour bus trip will either help you create lasting bonds or bring homicidal urges to the surface!
I really really hate saying goodbye to people. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do that this morning. But their impending departure made me start thinking about the nature of friendship.
I have one friend from when I was 12 years old, and one more from when I was 14. I have friends who I rarely hear from, but when we are together again we pick up right where we left off and it’s as if we were never apart. I have friends with whom I touch base often but haven’t seen in more than a decade. I even have a few dear online friends I’ve never met in person!
Making friends as an adult isn’t always an easy process. Life becomes busy – you don’t always have the luxury of making friends with those who share your interests so much as those with whom you share an office. Since I have had children, I’ve made friends with the mothers of children my own children are friends with. If I’m lucky, they are people that I will remain friends with even if the kids fall out!
Living abroad puts a new wrinkle on making friends. Often you bond quickly with people because you are both out of your own familiar environment. And I think there is also an unconscious idea that if you like someone you better just get down to business because one or the other of you will leave soon! I’ve made some wonderful friends with people who I might never have met otherwise – some of whom are from my home state! While I love making friends of people from far flung places, it does also increase the chances that once we both leave wherever we are when we meet, that’ll be goodbye forever.
I suppose what it all boils down to is that friendship is precious. I would love to think that I will always have all the friends I hold dear in my life forever, but I know that life is not that way. So instead, I will do my best to appreciate and nurture the ones that I do have and hope that one day our paths will cross again.
That is the nature of friendship, I think. In the past, when most people stayed put through life, friends were life-time companions. But in the more mobile lifestyle we live today, friends are companions for “now”… and when we meet again. Enjoy them while you can.
by anny cook May 25th, 2009 at 1:56 pmGood friends are precious. Some friends you have for life and others come and go as interests and circumstances change. I think it’s the fast paced life we live that makes friendship like this…
by Shelley Munro May 26th, 2009 at 3:55 am