Growing Up

When I was growing up, I spent quite a bit of time at Gretchen’s house. Gretchen and I met in nursery school when she put her boots in my locker (or vice versa?). I can’t remember now. I spent the night for the first time when I was in fourth grade. That was the first of many, many adventures at her household. There was the anti-prom party (held in honor of our friend Sara, whose parents wouldn’t let her go to the prom with her 11th grade boyfriend when she was in 9th grade), the valentine’s celebration the year my heart was broken, the time we packed up her little girl Beatrix Potter room and moved her into her teenage room, the many hot tub and pool parties, the all-night slumber parties…I could go on and on. It was a gathering spot for friends, a place to be silly, and it will always remind me of my teenage days.

Gretchen is expecting her first baby in a few months, so a group of friends got together last weekend to celebrate. Returning to Gretchen’s childhood home and hanging out with friends I haven’t seen in a long time made me a little nervous.

There were five of us at the shower. Five friends from high school, who have graduated from college, moved away from home, gotten married, started families. We have changed and grown, become different people than we were in high school. One of us has been divorced once, married twice, and engaged three times . Two of us struggled to conceive. One of us lost her father to cancer. One of us runs a business. One of us works in the heathcare industry. Two of us are expecting a baby. Two of us have daughters named Ellie. Three of us work part-time or are stay-at-home moms. One of us has moved across the country.

We have changed. Life has changed us. We’re older, more experienced, more worldly. When I first arrived, I was afraid that we had changed too much…that we wouldn’t even recognize the young, silly, giggly girls who used to hang out in that house.

I shouldn’t have worried. I don’t know if it’s the house or if it’s the fact that deep down, we’ll always be those giggly girls at heart. Whatever it is, despite our circumstances and our experiences, we laughed and we joked and we reminisced. Of course, experience has given us a little better perspective and we wondered why we went to the prom with the same guy every year or why we let (insert Boy’s Name here) treat us badly. We laughed at ourselves, our mistakes, our disappointments, our poor judgement. We talked Facebook and Michael Jackson tributes, becoming famous by our reunion, and the pros and cons of silicone implants. We laughed at stories of our kids, our childbirth experiences, our leaky breasts, our desire to buy a new house every few years.

Old girlfriends are so important. They remind us of who we once were. They show us how far we’ve come. They get together once every few years at a place that feels like “home” and share life for a few hours. And just like our teenage years, the time went by too quickly.