So, I've been sitting here with the laptop in my favorite chair, avoiding Hurricane Husband tonight, and I decided to browse facebook. Now, usually when I browse through Facebook, I check out my friends and see what's going on with everyone. I say a few hellos, comment on a few notes, and maybe leave a wall post or two. Tonight, however, I chose a different route.
Tonight, I searched my alma mater, and browsed the names. I clicked on a few of the folks I spent a lot of my time with in school, but weren't on my "friend list." As a browsed the profiles of these people, I felt a lot of emotions. I was a little wistful as I remembered the good times I had had with some of these people.
I looked at one profile of a person I met during my first week of college. We spent a lot of time together. We traveled, in fact, all over the state, and as far as Florida with a group of friends. We were part of a theatre troupe (I use that term loosely) and were drilled that "we were family." I spent 2 years begging for this person's approval in my own silent way. I would gain "respect," and quickly lose it. This person left the drama group, and I still tried to be a friend. Instead, I was met with more "drama" than the drama group ever demanded. For someone trying to seem so high and mighty, and who placed himself upon such a pedastal that demanded so much from a friend, he is the one now lacking the respect of others.
I browsed another person I had met in the dorm. We lived across the hall from each other and hung out constantly. We talked about everything, and we had so much in common. We took classes together, we went on road trips together, and we spent an entire semester missing friends who had gone out of the country together! In short, we were joined at the hip, and had so much fun. Unfortunately, jealousy grew between the two of us, and that person did her very best to dissuade me from spending time with one of my other friends. It did not take me very long to figure out which of the 2 was the better friend.
Still another boasted an "honesty box," which would allow anyone wishing to post an anonymous take on the person's personality, looks, or character. Fortunately for this person, I did not allow myself to be so bold as to be "honest."
Finally, I perused a photo album belonging to another of my college buddies. There were pictures of me, and I appeared to be having so much fun, but I had to be a completely different person to survive with that group. I can't believe I let a group of people take me so far away from myself.
In short, these people are not "friended" on Facebook because they are not my friends. I could not be happier.
I am thankful that the people from my college days that I call "friend" online are the ones I call "friend" in life. These people were my professors, my inspirations, my foundations, and my companions. These people were supportive, honest, fun, and true. They never coerced me into being anything other than myself, yet challenged me and changed me forever.
Thank you, my FRIENDS, for being real in a world that is not. Thank you all, for I have been changed for good.
