The Great Meal Dilemma [so it begins]

School has only been back in session for about two weeks and I’m already starting to think my friends may be memories of days gone by. By this, i mean I hardly ever see them. And through no fault of our own we basically have to trip,slip and fall into a event where we’ll all actually be there. Either that or plan weeks ahead in advance and make sure we pencil it in our calendars.

The thing is I saw this coming. I knew one day, as we got more involved in our schoolwork and our various school organizations, the time when “just hanging and chilling” would one day become a luxury as opposed to a norm. All the signs have been pointing to this time arriving. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long to happen because me and my friends are some pretty involved people. I guess I was just taken aback because I didn’t realize the time had come until recently when I invited everyone to go grab some grub and no one could go. The thing was I couldn’t even be mad because everyone had valid reasons-work, studying, homework, prior obligations- for not being able to go. At that moment it hit me that THAT moment had come. It was like someone slapped me with a wet towel. That’s how the realization came upon me and all I could say was “…oh.” The truth is that on some other day I’ll have to turn down an invitation because of class, or prospectus writing, or a work shift, or some last minute cramming.

So this got me to thinking, “is this only the beginning of it all?” You know, the start of the “I can’t, gotta work”, “I have to finish up this bulletin board so sorry”, “skipping dinner, finishing my term paper.” How long, before it’s “Can’t gotta go get the kids” or “My boss just dropped this stack ton of work so nope can’t meet you this weekend for the trip to the outlet” Is this the natural progression of things? You start off spending a whole bunch of time together and then natural events take their place and you barely see each other ever again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I never see any of my friends EVER. My former roommate, for example, we hang out a lot. So much you’d think we still lived together. We keep in touch all the time actually, it just takes a bit more effort. I guess that’s it, the older you get, the busier you get, the more commitments you start to make, you have to put more effort towards your social life.  And of course, us being college students-better yet  being humans- we don’t like extra effort. Especially if we can’t particularly pinpoint an immediate result. So maybe that’s where the problem lies with most relationships-not just friendships-we get used to it working a certain way and when it doesn’t we are faced with the choice to either readjust to the changes or remain stagnant and let it fall by the wayside.  It gets a little more challenging to put in extra effort in group friendships because they involve more than one or two people. I suppose it all comes down to whether you’re willing to put in the effort.

Yeah that’s exactly what it comes down to.

Moral of the Story: Find the people worth putting in the effort for and who you know will put it back. I know I have, have you?

Side note: sorry for the complete randomness and somewhat un-funny-ness of this post, just felt like getting “real” for once….whatever that means. heehee

Love Briizy Bri, aka the Bri-ster, aka the kewlest cat on this side of the jive.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and redeemer.- Psalms 19:14