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Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Loss & opportunity

Today was one of my good friends at work's last day. He's moving on to a better opportunity in a great environment. Unfortunately for me, his opportunity is my loss. Generally speaking, as many of you know, I am not the best at keeping in contact with people once I no longer see them a lot. I've had letters to friends in France I've been meaning to send for weeks, texts I still need to respond to from last week and messages from people I've been meaning to answer for months. Months!

So good bye, for me, usually means more than just see you later. It involves disappointment, struggles to find time to hang out and visit and just an endless series of rescheduling and plans that never come to being.

Take my friend Kat, who lived in Northampton and went to Smith. I saw her at least twice a week, usually more, for a year. She graduated and moved home to NYC to get her masters and I've seen her once. Once! In two years. In September, I went out to New York to see her for the first time for a long, three-day weekend.

And that's just one example! Don't even get me started on my friends from high school, even middle school.

So I know I suck at this whole, staying in contact with everyone I want to, thing. But on the bright side, I'm one of those people whose friendships don't decay, on my part. Reconnecting is like never being apart. It's easy and honest and a great time.

But I know what the following days and weeks after the initial separation will be like. I can anticipate them and that makes the lead up to, and the actual event, a sad thing for me. I just have to hope that the other person is persistent enough to make the first contact over and over and that they, too, can keep a friendship going without much encouragement in the meantime. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Anyway, congratulations Jeremy and good luck!

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