Summer Weddings & Growing Up

This year has been particularly weird for me, when I was asked to be the best man for my two best friends, Sam and Eric, for their respective weddings, this summer. It's not weird that they're getting married - I wholeheartedly approve of their wifes, Miranda and Marla, respectively, but I'm a little more weirded out at how this helps to point out that we're all growing up. Maybe growing up isn't necessarily the right word - we're all adults now, thrust into postitions within the working world, and we've since scattered to the wind after high school and college to our careers, lives and hobbies in our own corners of the planet.

While at Eric's wedding, I talked with a couple of friends from high school for the first time in years. I've only really kept in touch with two friends from Harwood, a larger number from college, but there is very little looking back, or effort beyond things such as Facebook, to keep in touch with people. I see what a lot of my former classmates are up to, but I rarely engage with them in any meaningful sort of conversation. I think that's good and bad, honestly. There's very few people who I want to keep in touch with from high school, and as the years go on, (Six already!) we've all changed a lot. Some people, from what I've heard, have essentially moved from student to parent, something that continually baffles me. Others have gone on to travel to other countries and do some pretty cool things.

It's a very strange feeling, looking back at my education and realizing that I'm largely out of that stage of my life, and realizing just how little high school prepared me for this sort of thing. All of my social interactions have changed with my personality and mannerisms as I've grown older, largely formed while in college, but there was just so much crap that I didn't need or have any use for, and from everything that I read and hear about, it's largely the same everywhere else. There's been very little that's prepared me for 'real life', it would seem.

I'm very happy for my friends, I think that they're embarking on some very good places in life, but jesus. We're grown up! When did that happen, because nobody told me.