I Miss You, Friends

I miss you all already. Only 36 hours back home in Texas and I sent this message along with this cartoon to my girlfriends since high school who I had the rare chance of visiting with in late September. My friend tied the knot at a destination wedding in Georgia and she had invited me to part of the wedding party — a role I gladly accepted.

The wedding was great. Her guy is great. The food in Georgia is great. What I realized wasn’t great, though, is the kind of friend I feel like I’ve been over the last several years. As we got out of the Uber one night, my girlfriend commented on how she couldn’t wait to be more social again and felt like she’d been out of the loop for awhile because of the wedding planning.

“I just got so busy,” she said. “Has this ever happened to you? Because I said no to going out so many times, my friends just stopped calling to invite me. It sucks when you find out that all our friends went out because they post their pictures on Facebook, and you didn’t even get the phone call.”

Little did she know I felt like crying right there and then. I HAVE been that person for so long, the one who no longer gets the invitations for reunion girl’s trips or the one people assume has no time to talk on the phone to hear about the latest drama, bad day at the office, sexy outfit or any other awesome or mundane aspect of my friends’ lives.

But I did it to myself.

Have I ever ignored a phone call from my friends because I’m in the middle of giving a bath to a squirmy toddler? Yes. Have I told them I’m gonna call tomorrow and then forget? Yes. Have I gone for months without emailing? Yes.

It hit me coming home how much I missed my friendships, and how grateful I was for these handful of days I got to spend with the girls I grew up with.  I’m sorry, friends. I miss you. I miss you soooo much, and I need you, too.

As moms, and as humans, friendships are an important part of our lives, and just as we take the time to nurture our children, these relationships need strengthening and attention. Some of my friends have kids now or want them and will find out or maybe can even relate to what I’m going through. But I’m going to make a public statement to my friends that I WILL do better and make more attempts to answer that call — even if its just to talk for a few moments so you know I do care and I’m not ignoring you — and I’ll even make some more of those calls, just to say hi, how’s it going, and let you know I’m my small way that you are still an important part of my life.

Thank you for still being my friends, despite all my flaws. That’s what true friends are for.