Friends come and go, ohh, but the ones that stay!

One of the unexpected joys about ‘Rainy Season’ is the familiar faces.
When the tourists have faded away and you are running your errands…like this morning, I was taking Skyler to school and I waved and smiled (given and received) to no less than 20 people. I’ve heard from other people who have lived in larger cities that say they never run into anyone they know…but in low season in Samara, when you run into people you know there is this…’oh, you are still here, you still stuck it out’ kind of acknowledgment. It’s comforting. In high season you’ll see a lot of new faces and you may run into those new faces a few times, however,usually the full-timers are laying low or it’s their busy season.

I remember speaking to a Costa Rican friend years ago who talked about growing up in a tourist town, he used to play with kids at the beach who were gone the next week. Therefore lots of ups and downs. Skyler has grown up with the same experience. Through that he has become really great at making new friends and being a good friend, however, he also has so much experience with those friends coming and going. Sometimes they come back again and it’s heartwarming, and sometimes we talk about all the places we could go and visit friends we’ve known.

You can’t glue people in place to keep them in your life.

We also can’t know the future. We can assume that if someone says they are only here for 3mths, 6mths or 1yr that will be the case, however, we don’t know what the future can hold. They may decide to stay, or leave early. Are you more likely to put yourself out there and connect even if someone will be leaving soon? What if it was a month or a few weeks? There can be people you meet and have a connection with in an instant, and that connection stays with you. I’ve witnessed this in Skyler seeing him make instant strong connections, at times in my own life as well, but to observe it from an outside perspective is more affirming. Or at least I’ve known those experiences where there is an intense connection however your paths are headed in two different directions, and afterwards you wonder if the connection was equally as significant for both. I think those types of observations are easier to measure from an outside perspective.

Thankfully Skyler has a good group of friends that are mostly long term, and I’m sure some friends that are lifers, and then there are friends that come and go during different times in their path, but they are never really gone from our hearts. Cherish good friends. They are everything.

Pura Vida,

Cheryl