Changing Times

When people grow apart it is one of the hardest things to happen to you in life. Especially if that person was one of your best friends. I find that some of the hardest things to do in life are to realize for yourself that things are never going to be the same between you and someone who was super close to you. People come and go for reasons unknown but a lot of the time it is to get you through a certain point in your life. Without those people I don't know if some of the situations I encountered would have turned out the same. I have watched so many people in my life grow older and realize that the person they were so close to in high school just doesn't have the same interests as you anymore. It is a natural progression, but one that society seems to have a hard time accepting. Whether it be you marry someone your best friend doesn't care for, or you move out of state, or you just grow closer to someone else who shares your values and opinions. People change. Period. And for good reason. As I said before, being stagnant is a death wish. Not being able to let go of a person usually has a lot of negative things associated with it. I think that if we could learn to realize that people are ever changing and ever moving we would be able to let go of those in our lives so much easier. The person you knew in 6th grade hopefully isn't the same person they are today. Likewise, the person you were in 6th grade hopefully isn't the same person you are today. With our world ever changing it is incredible when someone says they have known each other for 30 years. It is hard enough to find someone I would want to talk to for more than 30 minutes let alone 30 years. But when you do find someone who has the same values as you late in life, they typically are worth holding onto. This all comes back to people being terrified of change and instability. People would take stability over radical change even if that change was going to end up positively. We need to change that thinking. This weird human condition baffles me. I recently had someone go through a rough situation and I was thinking about what would be the hardest part of it all. My conclusion was that it would be waking up without that person in your life because they have been there for 5+ years. I mean what do you do for your day to day? I think that is why people hang on so long, they aren't sure where to go with their daily lives because it has been so centered around that person or that job or that lifestyle. It's like when people quit smoking they have to relearn a lot of their day. Those commercials where the person stops smoking and has to relearn to drive and basically how to be a human are ridiculous but in a way make sense. They show how we as humans become dependent upon certain things and when we finally walk away from those things, or they are taken away we cannot function properly. Losing people hurts, but in the end I think you have to remember the good times with them and take all that you can with you. Everyone teaches you something, the wise person uses what they were taught to better themselves.