I glanced at my class today as I was walking out of the lunchroom. They were all sitting at a table together, eating their lunch, talking and laughing. I flashed back to my own grade school lunch experience. I'm one of those kids lucky enough to have lots of good memories of grade school and very little bad ones. At lunch I used to sit by my friend, Kim. We'd talk and laugh just like my students do now. The lunchroom was where we declared that when we grew up we were going to college at
BYU and we were going to be cheerleaders. I didn't really know what that meant, but if my friend was going to do it, then I was going to do it, too. The
cheerleading part never really panned out (thank HEAVENS), but the
BYU part did.
I've been reflecting on friends lately. (It might have something to do with all the incredibly nice, supportive, and loving comments I've been reading.) I've been lucky with friends. I've never had to look for them. They were just always there.
Like friends from my neighborhood that are still friends to this day. I don't know what a sister feels like, but I imagine it feels like one of those girls. I still think about them, wonder what they're doing, and hope that they're happy.
My junior high friends were so good that they turned into high school friends. And they multiplied in high school. I realize now that I basically became friends with those kids that were in my classes. Sharlene and Emily who sat in front of me in science class, Leigh, Dan, Neils, and Derek who happened to play instruments and were in the same band class as I was.
RaeAnn, Shannon, Crystal, Heather and all those others who were my friends basically, if I trace it far enough, because my big brother was friends with
RaeAnn's big brother.
Angie, who just so happened to be my next door neighbor my first year at
BYU and was convinced that Kim's boyfriend was a vampire and who wasn't afraid to come in and talk to some girl she hardly knew. (She must have known good things were to come of this relationship...) Her friend, Heidi, became my friend because that was just the way it was supposed to be.
Becca and Angie, friends from work, that are still friends even when we don't get to work together anymore. We still have a connection that lets us share our thoughts without reservation. I like friends like that.
And then there's my family of friends. I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive to have had friends BORN into my family. If you didn't grow up with cousins, all I can say is, you. missed. out. We were so close that even though some of them lived thousands of miles away we still picked up like it had only been a week since we'd seen each other. And some cousins, who were too young or too old at the time, are now becoming better friends.
I haven't even mentioned ward friends, friends from Zack's work, and friends from old
single's wards.
I guess the point I'm trying to make (to myself as much to anyone else), is that the friends pot never gets emptied out. If you were my friend 25 years ago, you are my friend now. Friends are added every year, but never subtracted.
My hope is that it continues like this forever.
So When I see my students talking to each other and becoming friends it's easy to think, "They're only friends because they happen to go to the same school and are both in my class." It's easy to think it won't last. But then I remember my past and friendships that started because we lived 2 houses away or were in the same class at school. And I believe I'm watching something great happen. I hope theirs lasts a lifetime, too.
To all our friends who are supporting us and praying for us, I just don't know what to say. I guess all I can say is, Thanks for being our friends.
This is a picture I snuck of Zack while he was washing my car windshield tonight. 
