The Devil May Care

The people in your life will never be completely gone. We live in stages, and especially in the newer form of school-aged upbringing, we follow a path that leads us directly into the arms of new people every few years. From elementary school (5 years) through middle school (3 years) to high school (4 years) - this is by my South Texas model - we have a fair chance of meeting new friends every year. Odds are, and this is just personal anecdotes speaking, we won't really make many new friends. We cling tightly to those that we've adhered to since the beginning.

And at that time in life, making friends seems natural. It's a matter of which Saturday Morning cartoon you like the best and whether you're going to go swing or play freeze tag at recess. Once those friendships are in place, there's a solid chance that you will - for school districting purposes - be with those same friends (for better or worse) through your graduation.

This is when the upheaval commences.

After a lifetime of connecting to the same people, we have to leave them. We move off, chart new territory, and make new friends through our dorm levels, classes, frats, sororities, chess club meetings and facebook. You get four years. Five if you're really good at it. Then, you're thrown out again into a different environment to try to make it.

All the while, you have to work hard to make the relationships stick. Time and distance wreak havoc on friendships, and modern technology is a double-edged sword of ease and laziness. But sometimes, life throws you a curveball.

Sometimes someone you went to elementary school ends up moving to your town and getting a job in your company or a guy you barely talked to in middle school met a mutual college friend of yours and wanted to catch up after all these years. Sometimes an old flame gets relit. Enemies can become friends. Old friends can become enemies.

We are in constant flux in relationships. The changes are small, but they can explode, and turn our social life around. And without the social vomit of middle school and high school - those petty people that used to sneer at you might have turned into decent human adults, ready to form a strong relationship with you.

You can never count people out. You live long enough, and people you've left behind come sailing back through. Maybe you've been one of those that randomly sailed through yourself.

When they do come back into your life, try to remember their names.

Or just Big Time them.