The Cure for My Jealousy

Yesterday I posted about a brief tinge of jealousy I experienced while spending an evening going through my friend Amanda's high school yearbooks.  We graduated from the same school one year apart.  And I only attended there my senior year.

Although I missed the experience of building relationships while attending the same high school over 4 years, don't feel sorry for me!  I wouldn't exchange my high school years (well, maybe some of 9th grade) for anything.  And the relationships I built then are still with me. 

And where did I build those relationships if not at school?  At church! 

For a relatively brief time (21 months total) I was enormously blessed to be part of a church youth group that not only changed my life, but still remains close today.  Our friendships are special and have lasted over four decades.  And we don't wait every ten years to have a reunion.  Usually every two or three years we'll gather together.

Last month Gail and I hosted a reunion of this group at our place on the Outer Banks.  Some stayed for a week.  Most were able to stay 2 or 3 days.  Some had not seen one another since the 70's!  And some had never met.  They came from as far as California.  Not all could make it, but all who could were glad they did! It was a fabulous time.

So, yes, I wonder what it would have been like to have gone to the same school for four years.  In reality, I truly only got to know a handful of my fellow graduates, and am in touch now with only one.  Yet I don't feel at all deprived.  My California church friends are as special to me as special can be.  And there's no empty spaces in my heart.