Friday, November 2, 2018

Nine Years and Counting - - Make New Friends (2013)


When I wrote this post on April 16, 2013, I had just moved to a new city in a new state. I've now been here going on six years and what a wonderful experience it has been. Was this my last move or are there more adventures awaiting me in the future? Only time will tell. I do love to make new friends. Packing all my books, on the other hand...



One is Silver, the Other is Gold

"Make new friends but keep the old.  One is silver, the other is gold."
I was nine years old the first time I went away to Girl Scout summer camp.  I remember being excited, but also apprehensive.  I was, after all, only nine years old and I would be away from my family for two weeks with the only communication via hand-written letters sent through the mail.  I was also concerned about making friends.  A shy child, I wasn't used to putting myself "out there" and I was arriving at a camp where I didn't know a soul.  The start was a bit rocky, I'll admit, with homesickness and tears the first couple nights.  But then I settled in and began to enjoy everything camp offered, such as canoeing, swimming, nature hikes, crafts, sharing a tent with three other girls, making s'mores and banana boats over an open fire and outhouses.  Okay, so maybe not the outhouses.  ::wink::  What I discovered about myself during that first two-week camping experience was that even though I was a shy child, I enjoyed meeting new people and making new friends.  By the final night of camp, when we sat around the campfire holding hands and singing the words above, I knew that I had made new friends that I would treasure and looked forward to the next summer when I would meet even more.

Those summers at Girl Scout camp set the tone for the years to come.  I loved going on new adventures and

meeting new people.  The summer of my fourteenth year, I expanded my horizons across the border, traveling to Mexico as an exchange student and living with a family in Mexico City for three months.  A few years later, I spent the summer studying in Europe, making more new friends.  My parents moved from Michigan to Florida while I was in college and all it took was one snowfall to convince me that's where my next adventure awaited.  I was right.  It was in Florida where I met my late husband and I can't imagine what my life would have been like without him in it.  We moved several times during our marriage, eventually landing in South Carolina where I've lived for the last 17 years.  Other than my childhood home, that's the longest I've ever lived in one place.  But now, my next adventure has arrived.

Last week I bid farewell to my home in South Carolina, loaded all of my worldly possessions into a moving van and the dogs and I headed up the road to our new home in North Carolina.  Am I excited?  You bet!  Am I apprehensive?  No, I'm not.  I've learned over the years that each new adventure is a memory waiting to be made; a new friend waiting to be met.  I've also learned that leaving a place doesn't mean leaving the friends that I've made there.  With care, those friendships will endure.  I'm looking forward to future visits with treasured friends and welcoming them to my new home when they come here to visit me.

 

What adventures have you had since this posted five years ago? Have you moved? Been on any exciting vacations?

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, November 3, will receive a package of books.
(U.S. only)


13 comments:

  1. only little adventures in the last five years - a new generation has arrived in the family - three little boys - they are always providing adventure & smiles - they all love to have books read to them!

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    1. Little boys are an adventure all on their own, aren't they? I have a 5-year-old grandnephew who loves books. Makes me so happy! :)

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  2. The past five years have seen my daughter graduate from HS, my son graduate from college and my husband and I celebrate 30 years of marriage. I've been a lot of places in the last five years too! From Florida, to Savannah, GA, to Gettysburg, PA, to Williamsburg, VA...northern California and of course, ENGLAND this past May!

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  3. I haven't had many adventures in the last five years but I've had wonderful celebrations of life. My youngest daughter celebrating 23 years in remission from bone cancer when she was 8. We've had 4 beautiful additions to our growing families, 3 boys and 1 little girl. And I'm getting older & wiser. :) Congrats on your blog anniversary.
    Carol Luciano
    Lucky4750 at aol dot com

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  4. About 3 years ago, my daughter was studying abroad in Toulouse, France. She saved up some money and bought me a ticket to visit her and we spent part of my time with her to travel to Madrid, as well. It was a grand time sightseeing and eating well. We have moved about a year ago to help my mother-in-law. It was good timing for the family since my son is away from home for college and the other child graduated college and is off in the big wide world on her own adventure.

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  5. In the last 5 years, I have had 3 joint replacements but I have still had wonderful adventures traveling to Europe and US destinations. I have seen both of my sons marry happily. A fun new adventure is ahead as I await the birth of my first two grandchildren.

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  6. I moved to New York from the Caribbean

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  7. I have been on a few River Cruises in Europe.
    PattyB43

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  8. Celebrated 37 years with my better half, our oldest daughter got married in Seattle, middle daughter bought her first home (no more renting) and did some celebrating with hubby's aunt who are 97 and 92 this year. Threw big parties for them. Family coming in from all over. Seattle was the first time there. I could sit on the beach and watch the sail boats out on Puget Sound.

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  9. Been to Hawaii on our honeymoon.
    Nat's Mama. (Karen T.

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  10. Nothing really exotic - Memphis and Nashville, but enjoyed it.

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  11. We’ve had several wonderful vacation trips in that time. The most recent was a trans-Atlantic cruise that took us from Southampton, England, to Miami, Fla.—with stops in Scotland, Iceland, Canada, Maine and New York along the way.

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  12. have taken middle son to a university 840 miles from home

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