I Welcome Change…But Not Always

1987: Kimmy, Sara, Kee Kee, Marilyn

I’m sitting in my hotel room in Springfield, Missouri, finally finding time to write after some marathon days of driving.  I love the road.  I do some of my best thinking during long hours of driving in Princess Leia the Prius with Yoda the dog.  What’s been on my mind the past few days is the concept of change.  I’ve spent the past two years actively searching out change in my life and then embracing it when it comes.  My decade-old Post-it note mantra of “I Welcome Change” is finally working, and I’ve found my life has become more about change than not.  For someone who has long been stuck in a routine of being afraid to stray too far from the status quo out of fear of rejection, the past couple of years have been exhilarating.

1986: Marilyn, Kimmy, Kee Kee, Sara (I don't get it either)

All that said, sometimes it is necessary to step back and celebrate the things in life that haven’t changed.  That’s exactly what I did a week ago at my 25^thhigh school reunion in Middleton, Wisconsin.  For the most part, almost everything about a high school reunion screams change.  The stereotypes often ring true:  the skinny kids are now fat, the teenage hotties are now bald, the nerds and geeks are now the gorgeous heartbreakers who are successful CEOs.  Although I didn’t actually experience all those stereotypes with my high school class, for the most part change was everywhere.  Everywhere, that is, except between my closest girlfriends and me.

2007: Sara, Kee Kee, Marilyn, Kimmy

In high school Kim, Sara, Marilyn and I were inseparable.  This is a friendship that I started independently with Kim and Sara in the third grade, and by the time we were in middle school, Marilyn joined us at the hip.  The four of us have so many memories together.  We shared our first heartbreaks together, we studied together, we skipped class together, we went to field parties together (Wisconsin kids like to lug a beer keg out to the middle of a cornfield and call it a party), and had loads and loads of fun together.

2008: Kee Kee, Sara, Marilyn, Kimmy

It was a magical friendship.  Since high school, our lives have gone in very different directions and we haven’t been very good about staying in touch.  However every few years when we do see each other, that magical best friends chemistry still there.

2012: Kee Kee, Sara, Kimmy, Marilyn

Amidst all the massive amounts of change in my life, I’m so happy that the high school best friend magic hasn’t changed at all.  So tonight, I’m lifting my glass of cheap wine in a plastic hotel glass and toasting the magic of my friendship over the decades with my high school best girlfriends.

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Tagged as: Change, Friends, Life changes, Road Trip