Damn that got me hype. So excited to spend the next 4 years with my fellow c/o '28ers!
It is sad to think that I will be leaving behind all my friends from highschool tho...
Think of it this way.
Throughout your next 70-80 years on the planet, you will have friends of an age, friends of a stage and friends for a lifetime. Or, “a reason, a season, a lifetime.”
Be present for your friends today, but realize some friendships will not stand the test of time. They are leaving you too for their own opportunities!
Social media helps a great deal. In the last year, I re-connected with a close HS friend, and it turns out on her second marriage, she married a USNA grad who knew my DH. We have rekindled our old spark of friendship after ahem decades. Just last week, I was contacted on LinkedIn by a friend with whom I had become inseparable after we were roommates at a summer Governor’s Honors Program in HS. We had lost touch after college graduation, and the Navy sent me to Spain, and she went to med school. We have now caught up by phone and have made plans to meet up when she is in DC for a conference.
You will learn to edit what you say to civilian friends, because you realize you may have traveled to multiple parts of the globe already, gotten a ride in the back seat of a Hornet, met some famous people, done things they cannot imagine - and perhaps they haven’t really launched yet. You’ll have to be conscious of the Navy slang and jargon. You won’t be particularly worried about a job after graduation or repaying school loans. You will see they are on different paths. I came home from Spain for a small town wedding of someone who is still my oldest friend. It was nice to see everyone again. By that time, I had driven all over Spain, Portugal and Morocco in my Ensignmobile sports car, taken military hops all over the Med, gotten my first Master’s, met Prince Juan Carlos (later King of Spain) in a receiving line, and oh yes, was learning and growing as a junior naval officer. The bride, my good friend, embarked on a career as a travel planner for Delta, and visited me for a month in Spain using her air perks. We had a blast. She still talks about it as one of her great adventures. She carved out her own path by returning to school, getting a BSN, MSN and PhD in Nursing, rising from the bedside to executive ranks to the senior nursing consultant she is today. Your friends will have their own adventures. If the friendship matters, invest time in it so you can grow it together.
.