The End of an Era
My friends and I have being going through a lot of life changes lately. This isn't unexpected because we're all twenty-somethings, recently graduated (or about to graduate) from college. But, man, is it wild to grasp... we're all becoming adults.
This all hit me when I read, today, one of my very close friends is leaving her job as a server. This friend has been in the restaurant industry since high school. Being a server helped put her through college. That job supported her, tortured her, and molded her. But now she has graduated college and is starting a new chapter of her life. She's even leaving Florida soon.
That got me thinking about all the other girls in my close circle of friends and where they were in life.
One friend is finishing nursing school, getting into a serious relationship and making plans for the future.
Another friend, is searching for her post-grad purpose in life. In the meantime, she's caught in the rat race- working long hours at her first full time job while also making time to feed her passion.
Other friends are adjusting to adulthood seemingly well. After college they left their student jobs and moved onto bigger and better things. One moved to NYC, fulfilling her dreams (and lets face it, almost every girl's dream) of being in fashion. The other is making moves in a huge corporation with her eye on the prize while supporting her boyfriend as he moves onto grad school.
Then there's me. I am coming to an end at my current position with a company I've been moving up in for 3 years. Unfortunately that end isn't up, it's out. Now I'm stuck in the dreaded job hunt. While that sounds awful, and it is, I'm using this opportunity to break the mold and pursue my dreams of a more creative line of work.
We're all growing up and facing the obstacles, pressures, joys, and twists life has to offer. But that drives me here: reminiscing about when the biggest decisions we ever had to make were what dress to wear to prom and what party to go to on the weekends. And when we thought we had life figured out when we found a place to eat at lunch or picked the right college to go to.
Going through life with a close group of friends is such a blessing. We've all grown together. I had people to support me in my high school years as a secret rebel, my college years as I figured myself (and love) out, and now as I enter the real world and realize I still don't have it all figured out.
These girls were my hands to hold, shoulders to cry on, brains to pick, and now they are role models to look upon. As I watch my friends grow, I watch with such awe, appreciation, and pride. "These girls are my friends. My friends are amazing."
No matter if they're going on cross country adventures, opening their hearts to love, trying new things, building epic careers, or still trying to figure it out, I know without a doubt my friends will do great things in life.
And no matter how far apart we are, how often or little we talk, or what new friends are made, I will always be there for them as a brain to pick, a should to cry on, and a hand to hold.
So as I watch the times of our childhood fade away as the light of our (young) adulthood shines through, I know it's the end of an era but the beginning of something amazing.
