Stop this Train

Yesterday, I got to have dinner with one of my best friends since high school.  We shared a bottle of wine and updated each other on our lives and funny happenings.  We eventually recognized that it has been the first time that we have hung out in awhile where we weren't celebrating someones birthday, or meeting up at a bar because we happen to be in the same neighborhood.  It was nice.  It's funny how you can get so caught up in "meeting up" with people but never really "catch up with people.  He wasn't my only high school friend that I caught up with this weekend.  And I have to confess, both interactions made me a little nostalgic. 

I wouldn't say I miss high school.  I wouldn't go back or trade in anything from my life now.  But
there's something about old friends;  Something about high school and childhood friends that's so real.  You know, that no matter how much "you've changed," grown up, or went your separate ways, childhood friends know you to your core.  They know all the embarrassing things and all the happiness and hardships that make you, you.  You'll never have friends like that again.  You'll make new friends, and I'm sure the new memories will be amazing, but they won't replace the old ones. 

The best part about old friends, is that every time you see each other, its like no time has passed at all.  You poke fun at things that happened in the past and the present because you can bare each others faults without consequence.  After some time of catching up, you inevitably get to that conversation of why things aren't the same anymore. Because it's always something.  And this is the part that gets me every time.  Don't you think it's sad that things like this are always changing? Friendships, relationships, family, jobs, life.  They all change whether you want them to or not.  I know change can be good, even great.  But change with people.. it's never easy. 

John Mayer sings a song titled, "Stop This Train" in which the chorus goes:

               *Stop this train*
               *I want to get off and go home again*
               *I can't take the speed it's moving in*
               *I know I can't but honestly won't someone stop this train*


The best part of the song however isn't the chorus. The chorus is the easy way of thinking.  It's the feeling bad for losing touch.  It's the not being as involved with others' lives because yours becomes to busy.  It's the not being a part of something that you always have been in the past.  The past is safe and amicable.. its home.  But no, those lines of the song are the simple part.  It's the conversation with his dad which makes you rethink that "nostalgia".  It's that part of the song that says: Don't look back.  Enjoy everything in the moment and move on with life the way its supposed to.  "Don't for a minute change the place your in."  -- Pretty sound words to live by. 

So I guess that means I should say goodbye to my nostalgia and appreciate where I today and the people who got me here.  So here's to you:  All my friends who've known me so well for so long.. who helped make me the person I am today.. and who are still very much a part of my life everyday, even if you're not physically with me.  I am truly blessed to have so many people in my life that have made a difference and wouldn't change any of my experiences in hope for more happiness.

(Yes, its appropriate to raise your glass to that.)