We recently hosted two 18 year old young men from the United States for 9 days. With one of them we have a 3 generation friendship! My parents were good friends with his grandparents, his uncle was on of my best friends growing up, and his Mom was in my sisters class….you get it, our families go Way Back!
How fun is that to have the opportunity to meet the next generation. I could tell by the emails I received from his mom and uncle how relieved they were that he would be staying with me in this far away country. I was so excited to meet him and his friend. Their visit sparked my own journey down memory lane of childhood friendships.
Both of the boys have been trying to decide where they will go study next year, and they had this time while abroad to think about it. During the time spent at our house I heard them talking about one University and by the end of the week they had decided on another one!
Third Generation Friends
I could not help but think about the new Friendships they would be making at University – wow new beginnings.
One of the most exciting things of going off to Collage/University are the endless possibilities that are in front of you.
It is the best time to burst out of one’s shell or place. Most likely you have been in the same school for at least 4 years if not more. People around you kind of decide who you are and keep you in that place, whether you have grown out of it or not. We often seem to live up to or down to the expectations around us.
Going off to a new place is an opportunity to start a new beginning. You can be whom ever you want, wow now that is exciting! No preconceptions of who you are. That is one of the reasons why I LOVE new beginnings. They can be hard, but they offer us endless opportunities in personal growth.
Many friendships that are made during the first weeks or first year of University will last a life time.
You start to learn that you can have all kinds of friends, each one for a different reason, a different place or to do different things with. You learn how to juggle your high school friends and make room for the new friends that are coming into your life.
Having these young men spend time with us reminded me how much I still appreciate my high school friends from Georgia and can’t wait to get together with them all this summer, as I head back to my home town to reconnect with all the friends and people that helped shape the person I am today.
Tags: best friends, friendship, friendships, long distance friendships, new friends, old friends, traveling with friends
