Counting Down the Days

This fall I will be taking a long overdue trip. One of my best friends from high school, who until recently lived in Virginia Beach, just moved to Philadelphia where her husband is working on his doctorate in psychology. With the demands of my job and both of our busy schedules, I never made it out to Virginia Beach to see Mary (although I was thrilled when she visited us in Nashville during their move to the East Coast).

When she told me she was moving to Philadelphia, (and just hours from New York) I knew I had to go see her. I started checking dates on my calendar, landing on October as the best time to visit. As I started researching flights, I had a crazy thought. What if our group of high school friends all went to visit and spent a weekend in New York City? I knew it would be a long shot. The five of us have been together only once since we graduated high school nearly ten years ago. Once we graduated we moved to different states, met new friends, got married, had babies and left our old lives behind.

This year I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and thinking about friendship. There are people who come into our lives that make a lasting difference. They help you grow and make you better. With life getting busier each day, I'm choosing not to invest my time in people who bring me down or try to change me into the person they think I should be. My "girls" from high school were more than worth the investment. They made me laugh. Sometimes too hard. They used to tease me – “Don’t talk about that, Tara will pee her pants!” (Because that might have happened more than once.)

Too much information?

But those are the kinds of people I want in my life - the people that I can be my truest self around. They saw my ugliest moments and they stood beside me as I faced my biggest fears. They loved Todd. We would never have gotten together had it not been for these girls. They pushed me to reach for the stars and celebrated with me when I grabbed them. They held me when my world came crashing down. They taught me what love is and loved me well.

I miss them.

 From left to right: Ashley B, Andrea, Ashley C, me & Mary - Fall 2000 

Ten years is too long to go without sharing life with the girls that made me who I am today. Although I knew it might be easier said than done to get us together, I went ahead and sent the invite and to my surprise they all want to go. Words can’t describe how excited I am!

As the e-mails went back and forth, I was reminded of how much fun these girls are:

Andrea
The fall would probably work the best for me. One request...or make that two...Kleinfelds and Matt Lauer!
Mary
I think the fall would be best. I think New York would also be so pretty in the fall.
I think we can make your dreams come true Andrea
Ashley B
Oh man Ann you read my mind! I can't go to NY without seeing me some MATT LAUER!!
Andrea
And you all can take my word for it...I’ll be sure to bring a sign for the today show....yes I will also have tourist written across my forehead...but it's all good!
Ashley C
I'm soooo in! I am excited...can we shop at Bloomingdales???
Andrea
Of course Ash! What's NY without Bloomingdales?
Tara
I'm so excited. Yes to Bloomingdales and a big yes to Matt Lauer!! Andrea - if you've got the posters, should we work on homemade t-shirts?
Andrea
Yes...Mary can you start on the homemade shirts? Maybe like one of those holiday themed sweat suits you used to whip up?? We could have shirts made...Missouri Girls love Matt Lauer!!!
Mary
Oh I'm on it Andrea....I’ll even put on some Easter eggs to hang off the shirts!

These girls are crazy. I’ll have to “introduce” them on this blog, but in the mean time, I’m really looking forward to our reunion; to sharing new stories and reliving the old ones.

If even for a couple of days, I will spend time with the women who surrounded and carried me as I ventured into the scary world of adulthood. I’m so thankful for this opportunity.

More details to come!