One of the great things about living abroad is going home to family and friends. I think being overseas has helped me appreciate where I came from more than if I had never left, and I certainly appreciate the people close to me in my life more than I think they know.
Last spring, I brought Scarlett to stay with my parents for a couple of months so she didn’t have to be around when we packed out and so we would have one less thing to worry about. During my trip, I also spent time with many people I miss daily, including most of my high school friends… and a lot of the other great people with whom we went to high school, too, because it was a big reunion year.
It did make me feel old: sometimes we feel like we aren’t as “old” or mature as we should feel at this age and then something like a high school reunion comes along! One of my brothers shares “big” reunion years with me, so even though we didn’t actually attend high school at the same time, we are now reunion buddies, which is pretty cool.
Classmates of mine are currently doing all sorts of cool, crazy, and amazing things all around the world. It was wonderful to have the chance to catch up with many of them, most of whom I hadn’t seen in years. The main bummer of the whole weekend was that Grant couldn’t join me so I had to do all the catching up for the both of us!
In fact, a lot of my weekend went like this:
Classmate: Hi Sarah, great to see you! Where are you guys living now? Is Grant here?
In all seriousness, we had a small enough graduating class that by the time graduation rolled around, we all pretty much knew each other. I did, of course, spend the majority of my time with my close group of friends, with whom I’ve remained close over the years. Even today, it is this group that is the first to remember my birthday or check up on me when something crazy is going on (such as Brussels going on lockdown because of terrorists a few months after I moved here), and that’s really something special. I am thankful for all the friends I’ve made throughout the world, but there’s something really nice about remaining friends with the people you knew during the very formative years of life.
To all my friends near and far: thank you for being there and thank you for remembering me even though I usually live very, very far away!
kitchen cables 
Such a thoughtful post!
Thanks! And of course I’m so happy to have a friend like you – and looking forward to our next reunion! Our pre-birthday rendezvous was much too short!