When my daughter was in high school, she was blessed with a tight network of friends. After high school, most of them went to the same college and from there begin taking different life paths that led them away from each other in a physical sense. My daughter left college, joined the Navy and spent 6 years in San Diego and was deployed to the Persian Gulf for 9 months. Being away from family and friends was difficult. In 2011 she took Shore Duty with the Navy and is now stationed in Oklahoma City. When she first got back, she had difficulty re-connecting with her friends. Several of them had gotten married and started having children. One of was married and working on her singing career. Others were still in school or otherwise moving forward with life. At first she felt like an extra piece in a completed puzzle. It took some time to re-establish those connections, without feeling everyone had moved on without her. Playing my "Mother Knows Best" I kept encouraging her to give it time, just hang in there and she would see she hadn't drifted as far from them as she thought. After all, it was quite a culture shock coming back here, to a new job (which was extremely stressful), and getting back in the rhythm of life closer to home. This weekend I talked to her about her plans for the weekend. She had plans to call one of the girls for a movie, was going to see another one perform and had recently gone to a birthday dinner for another. When I hung up the phone I gave a silent sigh and a prayer of thanks as I began dusting the house. I picked up the photo the girls had made their senior year. Each of them beautiful girls, now beautiful women. Although they may lead different lives, there will always be a close connection that distance may strain, but will never be take away, because that's how friendship is.
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