2003-06-01 : Growing Pains
Today has been, well, today. There will never be another day like it. It has been a strange day - one that has made me think a lot about my life and the lives of others.

It all started with a wedding.

Imagine, if you will, a southern city, and tucked deep within that city, a strictly Baptist church. I mean the kind of church that does not allow dancing and drinking at receptions. The kind of place (as my friend put it), that makes you feel like the little town in the movie "Footloose."

We started there; all the people that I had grown up with and have known all my life. It was very surreal. All the other people that have gone and gotten married have eloped or done strange things that did not require all of us to congregate in one area. Being there with all of them-well, it was strange.

How do you say hello to those people that used to matter the most in your life, but have faded into the distance? How do you spend time with people who knew your darkest secrets, but don't know anything about you now?

It's strange how we grow up. You're still important to each other, but not dependant on each other.

That's how it was.

We needed each other then.

But we've grown up - whether we like it or not.

They call it growing pains, when you begin to mature and physically grow into the person that you are supposed to become, but they never let you know about the other stuff.

The things that make you drift apart. The things that make you lose contact, even when you're in the same city. The things that make it hurt to say hello. And the things that make it hurt even worse to say goodbye.

Those are the things they should label as growing pains.

last * next