A friend suggested I start this crazy blog thing with at least one post before I go and I suppose it wouldn't be right to start a new journey without saying something about the place and people I am leaving behind. When I decided months ago to take this trip I had no idea how different my life would be when I left and how likely it would be that this little one semester program might be the beginning of the end of my life in Los Angeles. It has been an incredible year, filled with lots of misadventures and lots of joy and while sometimes the drama seemed to outweigh the good I would not have traded it for the world. I have met such amazing people in LA who have given me love and support, insight and encouragement and I will miss you all.
The night before I left Los Angeles my friend Stephanie came over to help me pack and hold my hand. She is brilliant and amazing, and over pizza and red wine she shared something rather profound with me. She told me how she once read one of those silly email forwards that completely changed her life. It said there are three kinds of friends: reason friends, season friends and lifetime friends and although people can transition from one category to another, appreciating them for what they are and loving them fully while accepting that it might only be for a short time can make your life so much richer in the long run. It is so easy to hold on to relationships, like places or phases, long after it is time to move on out of fear that that time might be lost forever or that the investment was all for nothing. The truth is however, and it is this idea that gives me hope, that sometimes the only real way to honor an experience, a person or a home is to let it go, to move on and seek new adventures so that one day you are able to look back and see only the value and the joy, and just maybe find the path to something greater.
Stephanie found that lesson in an email. I think I found it in her.
