The middle

Yesterday was a good day. It was the first real day that felt like I was home. I got to see Megan and Amanda for the first time since Christmas, and it was absolutely awesome. We talked about boys, school, life plans, their thoughts about being home in Erie for an entire summer for the first time since college, my thoughts about being away from Erie for an entire summer for the first time ever, their desire to find a church/bible study for the summer, other friends who were growing up and getting married, friends from home/college colliding (I am living with two of Megan's college friends starting in August, and Megan is going to be in the same city as one of my college friends the next year, who is going to the same school that Nikki did research at last summer...weird stuff), and countless other things. We looked at old pictures and made plans to take new ones. We coaxed an escaped bird back into its cage. We talked about who we thought was going to get married first, who we thought was going to have kids first, and who was going to live in the most exotic places. We imagined living on the same street with all of our children growing up together.

We are all kind of in the middle right now, between college and the rest of our lives. Nikki is the only one with a steady job lined up after graduation and a fiance, but she still wants to go back to school and get her PhD. Amanda and Megan will be working for one-year mission-type programs in different cities, and I am signed up for at least two more years of school. The husband/family part of life isn't in the near future for any of us it appears. But you never know. Megan predicted that I would meet somebody at grad school and be married within the next year. Haha, that seems unlikely, but it's fun to think about. Because really, none of us has any idea what the next few years are going to bring ... which is incredibly exciting, but also incredibly terrifying. College is over. It still hasn't really sunk in yet.

Nikki and Will come home Wednesday (?). I leave town on Friday. It gets harder and harder to spend time together as the years progress.

The night before we all left for college for the first time, we sat in the Eatin' Park parking lot and cried for a long time (see picture above). We believed that in that moment was the last time the four of us would be together. It wasn't true then (all that crying for nothing, right?), and I hope that there never is a time when we cannot see each other as a group of four again. Sure it gets harder every year, but nothing is impossible. God brought us together in high school because He knew that we'd need each other. And we don't stop being a part of each others' lives just because we're physically separated.

Love you girls <3