The Series of our Friendship

A few weeks ago, while waiting on my husband to come to bed, I went on a long rabbit trail. And ended up looking at ALL my Facebook photos. It was a lot of fun, actually – and it took me back to some really good times.

I realized that these five years of pictures and many, many happy memories and wonderful moments– of graduations, weddings, bridal showers, game nights, dinners out, Christmas parties, double dates, etc. – represents the third book in my friendship with these amazing ladies. And how rare and blessed that is.

  I was looking at all the photos, and reliving all the memories…then it occurred to be that this was just a tiny piece of our story together.

A lot of friendships are a book with many chapters. You are childhood friends or high school friends, or maybe you meet in college and go on crazy adventures together, or you may meet at work or church or through a friend of a friend after you become an adult and get settled in life or you might meet in a mom’s group once the little ones are around. And then the story of your friendship happens – set in a specific time and place, a book with many chapters.

But with Whitney, Bethany, Cari, Carrie, Jessica, Jessi, and Ashley – our story is a series. See, for many of us, we became friends in elementary school or middle school, all of us forming a tight bond by high school. We had sleepovers, celebrated 13th &16th & 18th birthday parties, participated in the senior play, went on class trips, got pumped up for homecoming, hung out together at the Junior/Senior, had silly adventures and the best of inside jokes. I’ve got scrapbooks and boxes of memories from that amazing journey. Our first book – a long one – ended with a tearful graduation but excited anticipation. 

Then college came, and our second book started. We were spread from Arkansas to Ohio and many places in between. But we still found time to get together on fall breaks, Christmas break, summer break – catching each other up on majors, new guys, new friends, strange adventures, big mistakes, studying abroad, missing home, break ups and makeups,  etc.  We found time for summer ice cream, winter road trips, coffee breaks, double dates, New Year’s eve celebrations. That book probably ended around the time some of us stopped dating the wrong guy and quickly met the right one…near our college graduation dates.

Then Bethany got engaged. We threw our first lingerie shower and took pictures at our first wedding. And the third book in our series began. A time of finishing (multiple, in some cases) degrees, graduating from college and settling into careers.  Job searching and wondering where God was leading us. Coming home or finding new homes. First apartments and first houses. Falling in love with the right guys, engagements, bachelorette parties and weddings. Christmas parties, coffee dates and game nights, pinterest pinning, and settling into adulthood.

And last night we celebrated the prologue to our next book. I have a feeling that the first chapter will be titled “Graeme”. And it’s going to be a definite page turner.

God has been so good. Stay tuned!