First Adult Friends - #SOL March 14

It's March and time for the Slice of Life Challenge! Thanks so much to the entire crew at Two Writing Teachers for organizing and hosting this massive event! You are all rock stars!

I'm excited to be part of the Challenge again this year. As I continue to tap into "joy" as the motivation for my writing, I am also tracking the territories about which I tend to write (and sometimes intertwine). Current writing territories are teaching, family, friends, travel, working with a personal trainer, the quirks of being me.

I love that in this community of writers, there are many of you who jumpstart my thinking about a topic or Slice to develop. Today’s Slice was a brainstorm courtesy of Holly, who has been focusing on memories of a neighborhood her family will be leaving soon.

Your first adult friends in a community – you know, those friends you meet after high school, after college, and not at work (though certainly I have many work friends as well). 

In 1986, my husband and I began to think about the benefits of owning a home. We knew we wanted to start a family, and decided that we wanted to begin that phase of our life in a new home, a place where we could build memories.

We built a starter home in Dublin, and moved in during December of 1986. We lived in a newly developed neighborhood on Mesquite Ct., a cul-de-sac of fourteen other homes. That cul-de-sac yielded some long-term friendships that are part of our lives even now.

In the two houses beside us, and the one house across the street, there were three young married couples, just beginning their families like we were:

• ·      The D’s house had a son that was four, and their second child was born between our oldest and youngest daughter.
• ·      The C’s house had a one year old son, and a daughter born the year before our youngest daughter.
• ·      The K’s house had two daughters – the exact same ages as our daughters.

 Besides being young and having young children in the same age range, we just really enjoyed each other’s company. Rather it was celebrating the birth of each new child, gathering for a cookout, decorating bikes for a street 4^th of July parade for the kids (and drinking a bit much in the process), building swing sets together, christening each new deck as it was built, playing cards, baptisms, sledding down our steep driveways in the snow, or sitting on those same driveways in nice weather on folding chairs while watching our children and the the world go by – we did so much together and had loads of fun while doing it.

One by one, we moved on to our second homes, and each time saying good-bye was difficult, wondering if we could hold on to the camaraderie we had developed when we were no longer close in proximity on a daily basis.

Fast forward to current day, almost thirty years later. One of those friends lost a battle to breast cancer, and she is still dearly missed. But I can’t help but celebrate the ways the rest of us have managed to stay in each other’s lives. Attending our children’s graduation parties, a recent wedding that was a beautiful celebration, comforting one couple when they lost a child, annual parties involving lasagna and cards, meeting for dinners and conversation; the list goes on and on.

We were very fortunate we moved onto Mesquite Ct. in Dublin, and met these first adult friends. I count my blessings for each of them daily.