I started this week out wanting to write about living life without looking back but a quick five minute phone call changed all that. An old friend saw that I had Lyme disease which made it so I couldn’t use the left muscles on the left side of my face and decided to send me some well wishes. Instead of just shooting a text or Facebook post my way he called. I couldn’t think of the last time we had talked but it felt like we never missed a day. It got me thinking about who I haven’t heard from in a while but also those I haven’t spoken too. It also had me realizing that I need to do a better job at staying in touch.
Especially being out of college, it becomes very tough to keep in touch with some of your friends across the country. What went from seeing someone every day for months at a time gradually turns into the occasional birthday post or text saying how something reminded you of them? Jobs become your day to day life, friends are those that live in the immediate community you live in, and trips to see friends become few and far between due to commitments. I have a group of friends I generally talk to at least once a week to check up on their lives but I have a larger friend group that I hear from maybe once every couple of months.
Those conversations usually begin with cheerful reminiscing of college or high school, checking up on each other’s families, seeing how mutual friends the other has seen are, and yet they all end in a wishful haze of wanting to make this phone call, FaceTime or Skype a weekly thing. Yet almost every time either the other party or I bring up how work, prior commitments, or the hustle and bustle of daily life may get in the way. Gradually the agreement is forgotten and that person won’t be mad because it gets chalked up to growing up and moving forward in your career.
What that simply gesture reminded me is how long five minutes is. Sit down and time out five minutes; that will feel like an eternity. Its 36 full snapchats, about a quarter of the average episode on Netflix, or just enough time to show someone you’re genuinely thinking of them. Most of us have five minutes in our day to get in touch with someone that we’ve been sitting there thinking of. The reality is that reunions, school functions or mutual friends make it easy to push the thought of calling someone to the back of your mind. I get it, people are busy but we aren’t busy enough all the time to forget to call someone. I’m just as guilty of it as the next person. But, after that phone call, I’m making a conscious decision to make sure I check in on a few people I haven’t made time for in a while.
