Homecoming

I spent this past weekend in and around Siloam Springs, AR and my alma mater's homecoming. I flew into and out of Kansas City because it was cheaper and my ride was leaving from KC, so I got to spend some time with my family as well. I had been back to AR last fall for a wedding, but we were literally there for 16 hours so I didn't have time to look around or meet up with people in the area. But this year was my FIVE YEAR reunion since graduating college, so I figured it was time.

I drove down with my roommate from junior year, and was able to reconnect with a lot of old friends. The funny thing about homecoming is that you don't really know who's going to be there until you show up. There were a few people I knew who were still in the area, but it was really a luck of the draw for those I wasn't sure about. This being my first homecoming, I wasn't sure how that would work - should I call the people I wanted to hang out with? Just show up?

I met with another of my former roommates this morning and we were talking about how sometimes it's just okay to not be as good of friends anymore. It's okay to catch up and leave where you left off with friends from college. Going into it, I think I felt a bit guilty I hadn't kept up with ALL of my friends. But leaving, I understood that (1) that's literally impossible, and (2) I moved twice and developed two new communities since graduating, so my social support and friendship-keeping energy was mostly spent locally. And that's okay!

Another thing that struck me this morning as we were talking was that perhaps keeping up with one another is more complicated now because we have SO MANY options to do so that we didn't before, like texting, FB, email, etc. It's still being worked out in the social realm which ways are appropriate and which aren't.

This weekend was also great because I got to visit two of the places I consider home. And that always feels good!