Old friends

What is it about the people that you use to work with?

I've changed schools four times in the last 5 years and every single one of them have been great experiences. I loved the people I worked with and considered them friends. After leaving each one of them I find myself grieving the lost friends. I still think about the people from my first school. We worked together in a learning community and spent a lot of time together. We cared about the same students and each other. We attended each others weddings and celebrated the babies. We got together outside of work and we knew the joys and disappointments each was experiencing. Yet when we all went our seperate ways; we lost touch. My friends are not longer my friends. I run into them once and a while but I really can't say we are friends. It's just different and I sometimes get the feeling they don't want to run into me.

It doesn't seem to make a difference where I work because it's always the same. I can think of two people from more recent years that I am starting to grieve over the loss of their friendship. It's not like I don't try. I phone, I write but after a while I stop. When it starts to feel like I'm the only one phoning or writing then it's time to stop. I think I care too much and when I start to feel dropped; I stop. It's not that I don't care about these people because I do. When your friends with people you know things about their lives, like struggling marriages and financial problems and you wonder if there has been any resolution. I hope for resolution. I still care for these people but from a distance. I think that's what makes it sorrowful because when the phone calls stop you still care but have no clue how things are really going.

So to all my old friends that I have lost touch with... I hope things are going well!