Friends?

When you find yourself constantly making excuses for someone, it's not a good sign.
I find myself constantly making excuses for why my 'friend' doesn't have time to talk to me... it's finals week, we're not getting enough sleep, he has to do this n that, whatever.
Tired of excuses.
Some friendships grow with time. Others wither.

In other news...
So I was talking to Benjamin tonite. At one point, I just kinda sat there, pondering life. And I came to an interesting idea. I looked back three years. Three years is certainly not a long time- not long enough for God to finish a blink on His (nonexistent) timescale.
Anyhow. I remembered the first days of our being at LeTourneau. The whole group of us. The friends we made that first year. I am not talking only about Penn2 people. But the entire group of us that spent time together.
And I came to the conclusion that if someone had walked up to us and told us where we would be in three years, we all would have laughed our faces off. No one would have believed him. I certainly wouldn't have.
Brian Hunter? Gone.
Jon Stuk? Married.
Jeff Sickler? Dropped out, and getting married.
Benjamin? Transferred to UT-D and getting a math degree.
Troy? Gone.
Ic? Heading up the LU security team.
Bowen? KZX.
Aroc? Long gone.
Nate? Internship at Rockwell Collins.
Josh Scott? Graduated!
Sheri Irving? Married... to David, no less!
David? Married to Shari Irving- whoda thunk? He was engaged when he got here...
Allison Loving? Who knows where she is.
Liz Boh? Works at the jail in Irving! So much for her education degree.
Sam Castillo? Working.. in Stephenville!!!
Brandon Culp? Injured, worse than the LAST time he got hurt.
Sam Allen? Gone. And back again!
Kyle Atchison? Engaged to Lisa Jones!
Beans, Stoner and Rob? Oi ve, who knew the struggles we would share.
Gregg Schultz? Gone. I don't know what happened to him.
Caleb Cook? Going on the full time instructing with LeTourneau! Hoo-rah.
Mark Faires? We're gonna be roommates next year.
Sterling graduated, as did Nancy Stevens.
And so did Mandy.
Jason Marshall? Working at Rockwell. His mother died this year as a result of a bad car wreck, while visiting Jason. Tragic.
Matt Neighbors? Transferring out. He's not into LeTourneau.
John Patton? Interned with Ravi Zacharias!!!
Jason Osbourne? Married.
Lee Uecker? Also married. HOW did THAT happen...
Amy Davis? Class president!
Jeanette? Somewhere in England.

And then there are others.
The expelled. That's what brought this subject up. I probably shouldn't name names, cause it's recent news. But a friend of mine, acquaintance at least, got kicked out for alcohol... possession or consumption or suspicion or something retarded. Not saying that the kicking out was retarded, but the possession/consumption/suspicion.
Others have been kicked out too. Chris from our floor, moved to Thomas 1 and got himself in even more trouble. Annekke. She was a weird one.

And then there is the other list.
Nancy Ortiz.
Matt Pfeiffer.
Marty Donner.
And five others, whose names have escaped me.
One man died of a disease, one woman in a car wreck, one man in a car wreck, another man in a chemical accident, one woman was murdered by her husband. That woman isn't discussed much.


None of us would have believe you if you were to tell us that these relationships would turn out this way. And the list I have made is just the end result. So many things happened with the people in between meeting and graduation, job finding, marriage, etc.
Life is strange. Something I will never understand the pathways of. I will never understand the way life is going. Only that it goes to a destination every day, one that I could not have predicated. And one that cannot be found on any map.

We cross paths. Only for a short time, though. Sometimes, we like each other so much that we force our paths to cross again and again, in spite of all other forces trying to send us our separate ways. Benjamin and I, for example. We lead two very separated lives. But once in awhile, we find ourselves able to take a little time- or make a little time- to hang out and have fun.

In other cases, we say we'll stay close, yet our paths never cross again.
I suspect that several of my Penn2 friendships will turn out that way in a few years. People we think we are close to... we'll find out otherwise.
I kinda ran into that last summer. People I make an effort to hang out with, won't return the effort. And I am sure it works the opposite way, too.

Hmmm.