The Revolving Door

Throughout ones life people enter and leave as if there is a constant revolving door for people to come and go. Many of these people are just acquaintances that we meet and chat with on occasion. However, the ones that stay a while, become your friend, someone you care about are the ones that it becomes hard to see them go. You hope and pray that you will someday see them walk back into your life but you never know when, where and if it will happen.

I do find it important to define the difference of acquaintance and friend before I continue. An acquaintance for me is two-fold. They can be a person like my parents friends OR they can be somebody I frequently talk to but don't share my life's happenings with. There are lots of people I know whom fall into this latter definition of acquaintance. It's not a bad place to be either. We just aren't as close as people I call friends. Friends, based on the prior definition of acquaintance, is somebody I share my thoughts, my feelings, my time, etc. with. They get to see how I think, how I feel and how I work.

Friendships have never come easy for me, I will openly admit that. Through years of reflecting on why- I have come to a few conclusions. First, growing up in the military, moving on average every three years- one learns to not make good friends but rather acquaintances because there might come a day when that person is just "gone". Their parents have been stationed somewhere else and they have moved. I remember many good friends being lost due to my family moving or their family moving. As a little girl I probably didn't consciously think I'm not going to make real good friends, but rather it seemed to become a subconscious coping mechanism.

Secondly, throughout the years of making friends I have met many people who instead of making me want to be a better person, instead of being uplifting, they drag me down. It took me a while to realize that it is ok to let these people go. To rid our everyday existence of these people.

Lately, it seems that more than not my revolving door has been busy with people leaving. Friends moving, friends going back to school, friends getting married. I know that most of them will turn around and come back into my life somehow but not all of them. Ironically, this Christmas season has brought about the busyness of my revolving door. I have many friends leaving for school. Many friends working far away, and some dear friends getting married.

It is my biggest hope that come spring my door becomes busy again with these important people returning. They have all taught me very important things about them, about myself, about life, and most importantly about the Gospel. They will always have an important place in my heart. For these special friends, I will miss you and look forward to seeing you again!