The people that matter

When I first sent Cara off to Plattsburgh, I worried about a lot of things.  Mama Bird was worried about how Cara bird would do out there on her own....taking care of herself for the first time.  I worried about all the little things; would she wake up on time, ask for help if she needed it, figure out how to get to Walmart, what would happen if she was sick, etc.  But what I worried about the most was if she would find people she could trust...would she find her people...people that she could relate to...that get who she is.  Would she find friends?  Ever since the kids were little...no matter where they were in life, what was most important to me was that they were in a place where they were loved and cared for.

Cara did find friends....and her years in Plattsburgh have been blessed by some great people.  I know it is hard for her to say goodbye to them.  I can relate, I remember how it felt to leave the friends that I had spent so much time with....and who had helped me develop into the person I was.  The friends you find in your college years have watched you stumble and have stumbled with you and have had a huge effect on the person you are as you reach for that diploma.

If  Cara is anything like her mom, and unfortunately for the poor girl, she has a lot of her mom in her, she will keep in touch with the ones who really matter, who have been there with her...they may move out of Plattsburgh, but they won't move out of her heart.  Cara will go out of her way to keep in touch with the ones who have been her friends...  I know that the friends she has mad during these years will stay in touch and will get together and communicate and support each other as they walk forward through life...no matter what their path will be.

In the end, it's not necessarily the place that matters....the particular college or locale...it's the people that matter...the people you encounter that make the place what it is and that change your life forever just for being part of it.

"We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.

'Even longer', Pooh answered."

~ A. A. Milne