Here lately it’s been dwelling on me that there are a lot of people who were in my life this time last year that aren’t anymore… or in my life at any point in time that aren’t anymore. It was really bothering me because I have lost a lot of friendships. But then I got to thinking, moving on is okay. In fact, it’s crucial to growing as a person.

In high school, my class pretty well got along with everyone. We meshed, we laughed, we talked and had a good time. High school believe it or not literally was the time of my life. I hated it, I couldn’t wait to graduate and get out of there but there are days when I miss it. And I look back at it and realize that I miss the closeness of having people around me all of the time. I had friends in every class, and I hung out with my friends a lot. We had homecoming activities and got to dress up, we just had so much fun all of the time.

But now that we’ve all graduated, some of us have had to make the transition to college. Here’s the thing with college… I cried on my first day. Kind of like I did on my first day of Kindergarten, and if you think about it, it is kind of like Kindergarten. You’re starting completely over on a whole new platform. Arkansas State is so much bigger than Corning High School ever dreamed (duh). I went from having 15-20 students in my classes to having 80+. That is an absolutely huge gap, and sometimes it’s really hard to deal with.

But see, I have learned that moving on is a good thing. Graduating high school and going to college has all taught me valuable lessons (the first one being I don’t want to be an adult). I would easily say that I am not the person I was a year ago. College has taught me many things about myself that I didn’t know. It taught me that life is super stressful, so I cry a lot to cope with it (not kidding), it's also taught me that I'm a lot tougher than I realized, and no matter the meltdowns I have, I deal with them and move on. In high school, my whole world would’ve been crashing down. But I’m learning that it’s okay to move on… right after bawling over finals and just college work in general.

There are many people who were in my life at one point that honestly I thought would always be there. I thought I had friendships that would last a lifetime and the bond would never be broken. But as we get older, we change... It’s just human nature. We mature and our opinions on things change, our attitudes, personalities, etc. People are in our lives for one of two reasons: a blessing or a lesson.

Many friendships I have had have taught me many valuable lessons whether those people know they taught me them or not. Some of them being bad reasons and some not. Here’s the thing, though, that friend that you spent your whole night crying to over a boy, taught you what friends are supposed to be doing for you. The boy you thought was going to be your forever? Yeah, well one day you’ll find better. Moving on is a part of life. If I hadn’t of moved on from some of the things I have gone through, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Because those lessons are what made me into the young woman I am now. They have taught me what to do, what not to do, and exactly who I am as a person.

So, moving on is okay. It’s a part of life and it’s all in God’s plan, remember when you feel like your world is falling apart because you’re having to move on… he gives his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers. And then one day, you’ll look back and you’ll wonder why you felt like your life was falling apart over such a small thing.

Just live, laugh, and love every second.