Cutting Back...

As I grow older, I realize that it’s increasingly harder to keep in touch with many of my friends and family members. For those that do not know me, I’m quite a friendly guy, and I have come to the conclusion that when you are as friendly as I am, there will be a day when you must decide who you should keep in touch with and who you NEED to keep in touch with. Calling my sisters and parents has become a weekly routine that I’m still trying to get in the habit of doing. My best friend and I talk almost every other day, so I’m not worried about talking to him, but there are other friends that I find I wish I kept in touch with, and ponder day and night how they are doing.

Unable to know anything different, I’m a family person. I appreciate my family, and I would not give up any of them for anything. I would take a bullet for a family member. The distance between us has not hindered my communication skills with them, it’s the fact that I am purely lazy and unable to care much about their daily lives when I have so many other things on my mind. I have a very extensive family, and since I have about 30 first cousins – let alone all of their children – it’s hard for me to know what they are all doing. One of my cousins is pregnant for the third time, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember when she had her second born child. Even my closest cousins, I’m unable to keep in touch with. Sometimes, it’s because I don’t have their number, but as I’ve come to realize, there is nothing new with my life that would interest them at all; still attending college, still living in Brookings, SD, still driving my Buick. There is a lot more interesting things going on at the local Dairy Queen, then my life. So why should I bore my cousins with such dismay? Because they are family, and even if they don’t really care about my non-interesting life, it does them good to know so it’s not awkward at Christmas time.

As stated above, I am a friendly person. I know a lot of names, and try my hardest to remember them all. But when the time comes where I have to choose which friends to hang out with, or call up to help me move, I know just which friends to call. I’d like to say that of all the people that I know, only about 10 of them can I truly call my friends; everyone else is an acquaintance. There comes a day when you know you have to choose between two friends, but it’s which friend you choose that will make you a better person There is a time when you NEED to keep in touch with people, family and the closest of friends. In the end, it’s when you are on your knees needing some help that your family and closest friends will help pick you up and dust you off, and push you along on your way again. Those are the friends to trust and to rely on.

The point of this entire babel is to understand that you should not have to make extra effort to keep in touch with those you truly care about, it should just happen. No one should have to cut back. I try to change everyday, I am not perfect, but I try to be everyday. Do you?