Good Friends

Bridget, Johnny, J.J. and Keegan are headed off to Spain in a little over a week and chances are, we will never all live in the same place again. It would be easy to turn sad and sentimental at this point, but that really isn't my goal in this post. The simple truth of the matter is that these friends have been like our family here. In this era of modernity and choice and privilege, people don't stick close to home anymore. Children go off to college and then they move even farther away once they graduate. I have a sister in London, family all over the state of California and friends all over the country and the world. There are so many opportunities to do so many wonderful things with our lives, but what have we lost in the bargain? It seems to me that there's no such thing as "roots" anymore. I grew up for the first eight years of my life within twenty miles of my extended family. I played with my cousins all of the time, had frequent Sunday dinners with one side of the family and walked a few blocks to my other grandmother's house several times a week to swim in her pool. Will my own children even know their cousins? Will visits a couple times a year be enough to form bonds and a sense of connection?

Those issues aside for the moment, Scott and I clearly made a choice, at least in the short term, to build a life for ourselves 3000 miles away from most of our family. In the nine or ten years that we've been here, we've had to build up a substitute family and Bridget and the gang have definitely fit the bill. From the "crazy" pre-baby days living in apartments in D.C. through home ownership, first pregnancies, and second babies, we have been there to love and support each other. But, as I've said, we're a mobile generation and D.C. is a transitional town. Bridget's headed to Europe and Scott and I have our own plans in the works. All of this leaves me nostalgic and more than a little ambivalent. What will it be like to start over? Will I be able to build up in my children a sense of groundedness or is that even something that I should be aiming for?

As for Bridget, Johnny, J.J. and Keegan, we wish them excitement in their new adventures and all of the happiness they deserve. They will always, always occupy a special place in my heart.