Random Thoughts on Change...

Beware this post is long and somewhat boring...

I have lived in Northern Virginia for almost exactly a year and a half now.  I have been at the same job for the same amount of time.  As a matter of fact, the job I currently have is what brought me out here, this third time around. Including the time I lived here for a summer while on break from school, the time I lived here right after I graduated from BYU, and up until now I have lived in Virginia for a total of about 2 years and 9 months.

Growing up we moved around a lot and after I graduated from high school, the moving didn't stop. In fact I moved even more after I graduated.  If I counted all of the times I have moved in my life, it would be over 30 times.  This includes all moves within a city, across the country, to another country, just for a summer or a semester.  Moves where I had to take all of my stuff out of one place to another. 

So thus far in my life, I am usually the one who lives in a place, makes friends and then moves away and everyone else just stays put and goes on with their life without me. They make really good friends because they stay in one place for a long time.  (Ok I realize I am over generalizing and I know that there are people that have moved just as much as me, if not more, but just go with me on this one.)

I have enjoyed the experiences in all of the places I've lived.  Some I enjoyed more so than others, but I have met a lot of people and had some learning and growing experiences in all of the places I have lived.

Now I am getting to a point in my life where I feel I should make some roots and stay in one place for a few years.  But you want to know what that means, that means making friends, becoming attached to them, then watching them leave and move to a different stage in life. That is hard.  It's one thing when you're the one doing the moving and starting over in a different place with a fresh start.  It's another thing when you're staying in the same place with the same surroundings and some of the same people and a good friend moves on. 

Having lived here for a year and a half now, this not uncommon phenomenon has happened to me a couple of times and I know it will continue to happen.  It's always hard for me, but I just recently read an article in the October Ensign that gave me some comfort on this topic:

The author was reflecting on her time at university where she made really good friends and then when everyone graduated they parted ways.

"Now we had graduated and moved to places all over the world, finding ourselves in situations we never could have predicted. I sighed with momentary feelings of loss, then glanced around the room at the laughing faces surrounding me at that moment and was struck by the sudden thought: good things keep on coming."

"I knew that even though some good things must naturally come to an end and that there would undoubtedly be many hard things in the future, the good things would keep on coming. And they always would—as long as I let them."

"Sometimes it is hard to move on, but we must. And moving on doesn’t mean forgetting friendships, forcing memories to fade. It means opening our hearts to even more happiness and more experiences."

People come and go in our lives. Some people stay longer than others, but I believe every person comes into our lives for a reason. Let us remember the good times with friends from the past but continue to make good memories with our friends in the present.