Lately, it feels like my friends
have been getting ahead of themselves- they’re rushing into everything. I have three
friends pregnant (Shelby, Chloe, Chrissy), and another one that had her baby
about a year ago (Jessa). All four of
the girls have been my friends since my freshman year of high school, but Jessa
is two years younger than I am. Shelby, Chloe and Chrissy are all my age, and
Chrissy and Shelby used to be my very best friends through freshman and
sophomore year of high school. After
sophomore year, that all changed. Shelby and I got into a huge fight and
Chrissy and I just seemed to drift apart, and I met Chloe through hockey and we
began to talk.
The summer after junior year,
Chrissy and I started to become close again. My senior year of high school
rolled around, Chloe wasn’t playing hockey, and I found out that my friend
Jessa, who was a sophomore at the time, was pregnant. She ended up having to
quit hockey (which is how we met), but we saw each other quite often, because
we would go get coffee and just talk about how everything was going. Her
beautiful baby Ella was born around May of 2011.
Around the same time, Shelby and I
started to work things out and put everything behind us, and Chrissy dropped
out of school and didn’t really talk to anyone anymore, and nobody really knew why.
This past summer Shelby and I became closer friends again, and we continued to
visit Jessa and her baby. But, in August, I found out that Shelby was pregnant.
Her boyfriend, Pat, was leaving for basic training for the National Guard about
a month after we all found out, and that’s where everything seemed to change.
I went off to college along with a
few of my other friends, and Shelby was stuck at home. As if that wasn’t enough
change to handle at once, a couple months into this school year, I found out
that Chloe and Chrissy were pregnant. I hadn’t really talked to either of them much
before that, but it was still surprising to find out the news about both of
them. As this year has been rolling along, I’ve met up with Chrissy to talk a few
times, hung out with Shelby several times, and tried my best to be there for
both of them.
Winter break came around, Pat came
home from basic for two weeks, and the whole group got together to hang out,
even though it was still hard to believe that there would be another member to
the group in just a couple months. On New Year’s day, I woke up to find out that
now Shelby and Pat are engaged. And honestly, I believe the only reason that they did this so early is because they're going to have a kid- which is for ALL of the wrong reasons.
After all of that has happened in
the past year or so, I find myself thinking a lot- Where did the time go? Why
is everyone rushing into everything so quickly—babies, engagement, moving out
of their homes!? I haven’t even gotten through my freshman year of college and I’m
wondering what’s going to happen when I have kids when I get older- they’re
going to be so young and some of my friends kids are going to already be in
school. I could be their elementary school teacher! Life sure is a crazy thing
to think about, but I just wish that some of my friends would really think
about what they’re doing, before they do all of it- even though with most of it,
it’s too late to think about. Where did
the idea of going to college, getting your degree, getting a job, buying a
house, getting married, THEN having a baby go!? I like that idea much better
than the one that I’ve been seeing lately.
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