On Leaving Friends

Chicago, to me, has always seemed like a transient City. Kids move here before, during, after college and extend the party life a couple years; then, the "settle down" urges hit and they flee 'back home' or they start to settle down here and eventually flee when the kids start rolling in. Neither alternative seemed to be the one I wanted. We have been committed to staying in the City, even while most of our friends moved an hour away once they had kids. And, the friends we drive that far for are the ones who are our family-away-from-family. We share all the family events together. Some have pieces of family here, but most don't. With some irony, we ended up in a neighborhood where families live forever. We have a neighbor whose daughter lives across the street. At our catholic elementary school, every 4th or 5th child is the child of an alum! In GRADE SCHOOL, for pete's sake! Anyway, leaving our friends is a big deal. It's nice to know we're moving to family, which makes up for some of it. And, I'm counting on the idea that a few of those friends will remain and put up with the distance. We'll see how that works out. So, for now, we don't say good-bye. Certainly things will change and our actual family will fill in some gaps. The other gaps will just have to morph into something else.