The Story
Shift It Back
Ever notice how many people actually keep the same circle of friends for more than a year? Living in the fast track, it is more common for us growin’ kids to shift and move all over the place. Some of us are moved around at a younger age by our parents, whether it’s because of a career move for them, a financial crunch or a familial reason. We get tossed all over the place, sometimes even willingly! Then college comes, and it is our great escape. We can go miles and miles away, or even study abroad in different countries. We all learn to call this the opportunity of a lifetime and gladly leave the things we love and have grown used to aside. Times have definitely changed, but is this necessarily for the better?
I can remember back to my childhood, when there were a few kids on the block who were all the same age. We played endlessly after school together, had slumber parties, knew each others’ innermost thoughts, and we knew that we would all be friends forever. After life finally sunk in and reality told us that there were opportunities galore past the white picket fences of yesteryear, we all somehow dissembled. The first question that comes to mind here is, “Well, how the hell did that happen? How did we all lose touch?”
Some people would say that it’s because circumstances just cause people to grow away from each other. Well, that’s fine, but it seems to happen all the time these days. How many people remain friends with the people who lived on their freshman halls here at William and Mary? We somehow lose touch with people who live on the same campus as us. It seems as if we have all become a lot pickier about who we want to hang out with. If someone bothers you enough, you can slowly choose to faze them out of your life. You can pick the people who you want to be around. Whereas, when we were younger, we needed to learn how to accept people for who they were. They lived near us, and we were destined to be friends whether we liked them or not because Mommy and Daddy said that we had to :play nice.”
It is not necessarily bad that we weave in and out of relationships, both intimate ones and friendly ones. We all learn and grow with the help of others, and sometimes after we have learned all that we can from one person, we seek out another to fulfill our days. But should we be trying harder to get along with people? Do we try hard enough in the first place? I could just be making this whole thing up, but it seems as if we have a tendency these days to shift through relationships without even thinking twice. Maybe that person who you used to be so close to still has something worth talking about or sharing with you. Who knows…but it’s worth the thought.
Kimberly Magnowski is a staff columnist for the DSJ. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.