Thursday, May 31, 2007

a journey, indeed

One of my closest friends was just dumped by the man she (and everyone else) really thought she'd marry.

Another friend is wondering if he should end his relationship with his partner now or wait until he returns from his year in Africa. Either way, it's probably ending.

A girl who lived a few doors down from me in my dorm freshman year of college is one of four sailors whose boat went missing in a storm off North Carolina a few weeks ago. The Coast Guard called off the search after five days, and still no sign of debris or explanation has been found.

All this makes me think.

I am sad for my friends, their families, and their undoubted pain. I am happy at the thought that my former dorm neighbor, who actually left Macalester before we graduated because hers was a different path, seemed to have found something she really loved and made a life of it. And I fully believe that my friends whose paths are suddenly looking really different, if not just really unclear, will find their way; hopefully in the meantime they will learn to cherish what was beautiful about where they thought they were going and let go of the disappointment that they're no longer headed that way.

Can I quote a girly movie here? Will you think less of me? Do you think I have the guts for it? Well, here goes:

"I'd rather have a few minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special."

(Julia Roberts, in Steel Magnolias, if you were wondering)

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