"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. 

Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. 

And we are never, ever the same."

I remember reading the above quote in middle school and wondering what the hell it meant. No way did I believe that the friends I had at that time may not be my friends forever. As I've grown older, I've really come to know the meaning of this quote. The realization comes with age.  

My first realization was when I embarked on my journey to high school.  I went from a graduating 8th grade class of 56 to a whopping 1,000 in my class freshman year.  I told all my friends before high school started that we would stay in contact and that nothing would change.  Little did I know that was not the case. I saw them considerably less and after we all made new friends at our corresponding high schools, it got even harder to coordinate our schedules.

Throughout high school, I for the first time in my life learned the true meaning of heart break. But being the naive girl that I was, I thought we could be friends after the break up.  It took years to figure out that there was no way being friends was in the cards for us.  I closed that chapter of my life and said good-bye to a boy who had once been one of my best friends.

Then came college - an even bigger stepping stone in life.  Similarly to 8th grade, I thought I would manage to stay in contact with many of the people I had called friends all four years of high school.  It wasn't too difficult in the beginning; I was able to balance keeping in touch with my friends at other universities, while creating new friendships on my campus.  However, as time went by, it became obvious that maintaining many of my high school friendships was faltering.  I quickly realized within a few months that the ones that cared most about my friendship would meet me halfway.

Now being almost a year out of college, I am a little shocked at how many friends I feel like I've "lost" since graduating.  It's been consistently repeated to me throughout the years that those you meet in college are your friends for life.  Maybe so.  But I feel like whoever started that quote should have had a disclaimer: **Only SOME of those friends will be your friends for life.

I've learned especially over the past year that people just give up.  If you are both not meeting 100%, the friendship is going to sour.  We become preoccupied with our lives - our demanding jobs, our alone time with our significant other, making time for our new friends whether they be co-workers, neighbors, or randoms that you just met at the bar last Friday night.  Coming out of college, I had a list of friends I knew I wanted to speak to on a weekly basis to stay updated with each other's lives.  The system worked well for about 6 months...then I realized it was becoming too demanding on both ends.  It's just a bit of a punch in the stomach to think those friends you thought would be leaving "footprints" just come into your life for a short period of time and quickly go.  But to avoid any bitterness, I know that's life.

Many of my previous friends have only been in a few chapters of my life.  They were there for a period of time, but I still have memories I can look back on with happiness. But then I have those friends that have stuck around and truly left footprints on my heart.  Some of my oldest friends date back to when I was in kindergarten (and even before that) - and that's special.  With life comes a lot of realizations, but this has been one of the largest for me thus far.

With footprints,