Old friends

I realized something recently. I am very blessed to have old friends when I am only in my late twenties. I always loved the idea of having old friends for nostalgia sake. Yes, those are the people who remember the good old days, but it’s more than that. Those are the friends who can tell you how far you’ve come. Those are the friends that know your best and worst tendencies, how many you have overcome, or developed, and how many you have not.

There will always be friends that you outgrow. The hope is that you both grow, simultaneously. Sometimes you grow in opposite directions. If you can find the friends who are both old friends, and those with whom you can grow together, that is the best.

If those friends are family members, mores the better. But beware of leaning on family for growth. Some family member inhibit your growth. You live in the same box in their mind, so you conform to the same box you grew up in.

Good old friends are those that have known you longest, loved you hardest, and helped you grow farthest. Those are the friends you need to surround yourself with. Those are the ones to get you to heaven.

It is much easier to go solo on this life adventure. Everything is new all the time. But that is not the way to true growth. You don’t pick a different wall as a kid to put a slash with the pencil where the top of your head reaches. You use the same spot, to show your progression through the years. It’s the same thing with friends. Every once in awhile you must go back and measure how far you’ve grown. Sometimes it will be difficult, you will feel lonely realizing you are nothing like the child you were a foot ago. Sometimes you realize again why you left the first time. But sometimes that is necessary for further growth. To take stock of your farm and realize which soil is depleted with no more growth possible, and which will make you bloom.

Talk to your oldest friend. If you are blessed, they can tell you how far you’ve come, and tell you to keep going.