The older I get the more I realize that not only do you gain new amazing relationships, but you lose some. Others become stronger and deeper. Some fade into the background. While saying goodbye to friends, and slowly losing others in not always bad, it’s not always easy either.
There are those you thought I would never have to say goodbye to. My freshman year of college I met Katherine. She was moving in across the hall from me. She made some sarcastic remark to me and quickly replied with one of my own. We were instant friends. Over the course of our first year at Multnomah the friendship deepened. I wouldn’t have said we were best friends, or really even that close but we were friends. The next two years this continued. We managed to meet up over the summer once or twice for lunch. We were RA’s together, and she was my Head RA one year. I remember eating breakfast together. I remember yelling down the hallway to each other. I remember going to coffee shops. I remember meeting her now husband Jeff when she didn’t want anyone meeting him ( you would have to understand the Multnomah dynamics). I also remember her telling me she got the job she really wanted after graduation in Colorado. She finished school a year before I did, and then it was off to Colorado for her. I went to her graduation, and the next day her baptism. I remember saying goodbye to her. I also thought that this was maybe goodbye for a long time. We kept in touch a bit and when she told me she was coming “home” I was overjoyed.
Kat soon got engaged and within weeks asked me to be her bridesmaid. We also then decided that we would get an apartment together with my friend Suzanne. We moved in right after my graduation. I couldn’t have asked for two better friends, or two better room mates. We all enjoyed living together for six months before Kat moved out. These were some of my favorite memories: ice cream, room mate dinner night, bowling, huge cookies at Old Chicago, the Puyallup fair, and of course wedding planning. The time of living together deepened our relationship.
After I moved to Olympia and started coming down to see Ryan, Kat and her husband Jeff, offered to let me crash in their “office”. They lived about 10 minutes from Ryan. They soon moved closer to Ryan, now only about five minutes away. The friendship between the four of us got so much deeper. Katherine was in our wedding, and Jeff was our unofficial photographer! We were there the day their son Levi was born, and at his dedication. They were there to put wedding invites together. They have become our dearest friends. We have dinner at each other’s houses, go out for dessert, drink wine, play games and just share life. We pray for each other, encourage each other, and support each other in every way that we can.
Kat and Jeff are moving. While I know we are saying “goodbye” next weekend to these precious friends, I know that it is not for forever, one because they will move back, and two, Jeff might “live” with us when he is down in Portland for his rotations (he is in pharmacy school-he is one of those really really really really smart kids). We will drive to Washington to see them and they will come visit Portland. But the task of saying goodbye is never easy. It’s not fun to let go of the friends you love so dearly.
So, Wiedemann family, I am not going to say goodbye. I am going to let go though, because I know the journey you have just ahead is far greater than what would happen if you stayed my neighbors so I am comfortable. Just come back, besides your grill is living at my house now.
Love you guys!
