Relationship Reflection

Relationships take time to nurture and grow. There are times where distance can separate friends, but then life has a crazy way of reconnecting us. These are my friends from high school and we each share crazy stories of our high school days from 20 years ago. We take the time each year to get together when our friend Stephanie comes in town. These friends have gotten me through some tough times. I remember Stephanie loosing her mother to cancer in high school and when my dad died when I was in college, Stephanie had the words of wisdom I will never forget...."You've got to talk about it." Most of that time was a blur, but I can remember that conversation like it was yesterday.

If I've learned anything, relationships take time. They morph as time goes on and we grow yet it's the true friends that always come full circle and have your back when the world has turned on you. We have Facebook to keep in contact so that we always know what is going on in each other's lives and while we may not be there to give a hug when life throws a curve ball, we have the words to say "I'm thinking of you". I had other friends that I thought were my true blue friends from those days and have realized that we have grown apart and our values have changed. The success of friendship requires both people to work at. I lost what I thought was a good friend because I became tired of always being the one to work at it. I often question where I went wrong. I guess I'll never know despite attempts to find out.

 

These are my director friends from various backgrounds. Annie and I met at trainings and stumbled across our friend Susan at another training. She was from out of town and happened to be in our group for the class. I remember having discussions with her about a state funded program that I hoped would fold, but she needed it to sustain her facility. Later on we all had contact with Kathy, who became our state level designator for quality improvements. These are the people who get it. They understand staffing issues, program problems, parent complaints and the happiness I get when a child hugs me. They have each called me with their stresses and sometimes just ask for a moment to listen. We never judge each other for our mistakes and we have all grown in our field because of our support system. We also tend to question the norm and often get into trouble for asking questions. Somehow we've dubbed ourselves after superheroes. I'm Batman, Susan is Robin and Annie is the Joker. Kathy...she just laughs at our antics and fuels our fire to change the world.

 

All in all, I can't imagine my life without any of them. Each of them has worked to mold me into the person and professional I am. I am thankful for each of them...and always will be.