In high school, it seemed like I was almost always the one instigating all the parties—various collections of friends would text me every weekend to see what was going on, and somehow we’d all end up at my mom’s house, playing Risk or watching scary movies or just chatting on the couches in the living room.
You’d think with a designated-hostess past, I would be the one to get all of our friends together now that we’re all grown up, but not so—
Turns out, the adult Torrie is WAYYYY different than the teenage Torrie.
For one thing, as a teenager, I didn’t often like to spend too many “quiet evenings” at home doing things like cleaning or watching three straight hours of Chuck while perusing the Internet to look at blogs or paging through magazines.
Funnily, that’s totally my favorite way to spend a weekend now.
Luckily for me, I have friends who have gladly stepped up to wear the proverbial hostess hat, thus ensuring that our friend group (and all of our spouses) actually get some face time once in a blue moon. (Thanks, Kayla!)
Last Friday, we got the gang together (complete with spouses and lots and lots of babies) for a potluck dinner and a whole lotta catching up.
Every time I spend time with old friends, a part of me flares up again from the inside, almost like I’m remembering something about myself that I’d forgotten for a long time. This feeling is a large part of the reason why I always get so determined after these semi-annual gatherings to spend much more time continuing to build on old friendships, but it’s hard—-most of my friends have small kids and full-time jobs and mortgages and church callings, and we’re all just so busy.
It’s easy to let life get in the way, until, before you know it, a year has passed and you (once again) haven’t seen or talked to the people you’ve always called your best friends.
Sad, isn’t it?
Anyway, I’m grateful that we made this get-together happen last Friday. I’m grateful that Matt and I were able to make it down, even though we’d both had horrendous days and had to agree not to say much on the car ride down for fear that we’d get in a pointless argument because our tempers were running so high.
Luckily, good food and good company goes a long way in helping to bring a shot of good humor back.
What’s your trick for keeping up with old friends?
