to everything changing but us,

to everything changing but us,

I still see us at ten years old, filming music videos in our bedrooms like the world was something we could rehearse for. Not a care in the world except what song we’d be singing and dancing to next. And on these nights, we’d play pretend and stay up late talking about what everything would be like when we were finally older; almost like we couldn’t wait. What kind of cars we’d drive. The boys we’d date. Where we’d live & go to college. When we’d get married. We were in such a hurry to grow up when we were having the time of our lives right where we were at.

As you get older there are always friendships that don’t last. Some aren’t meant to stay with you for a lifetime. But I’ve always found it so beautiful that there are some that do. Some that stay so effortlessly through every change and every season of life. Nothing seems to shake those few core friendships that you’re just supposed to have.

So quickly after these times it seems that it somehow wasn’t just bedroom music videos anymore. It was high school hallways. Sports teams. First dates, kisses, and cars.

I’d give anything to go back and play one last game with my best friends. We would get up at 5 in the morning, our families driving us to our games knowing we probably weren’t going to win. And somehow, that almost made it better. Even when we were losing by 15 points, we were still laughing. Laughing at the losses and laughing when we were winning because it felt just as ridiculous.

When you’re living in moments like that, they just feel like another day in your life. They don’t feel like something you’ll one day ache to go back to.

Even those sweet years felt endless at the time. Looking back, they seem to have passed even faster than the ones before them. In those years we changed. We grew more into more of who we truly were. But somehow, nothing changed how close we stayed.

Then came the years that really shape you. When you leave home and try to figure out who you are without the safety of what you’ve always known. In those years, I met more that have become a part of my core, showing me that at any stage of your life, your soulmates can still find you.

I’d also give anything to go back to that time for just a day. One more night standing in line in the snow in Michigan with a tank top on, waiting to get into a bar with a fake ID. One more morning in our three-story townhome cooking breakfast for everyone before a gameday. One more night with clothes thrown all over the bedroom floor, trading makeup, borrowing tops and jeans, only to somehow all end up basically wearing the same thing.

You do those things a million times in your early twenties. So many that you barely notice when the nights slowly start to fade and you feel you’ve truly grown up.

There’s something sacred about watching the people you grew up with step into the light of their next season. Now some have rings on their fingers or live in their own places. Own homes and businesses.

We strived and prayed for these times, thinking they’d be the golden hours, and trust me - they are. But did we realize back then that we were already living in them, too?

Everything has changed, except the fact that we have each other.

I’ve seen my people in every stage of their lives. In all of their golden hours. What a beautiful thought it is, that if we’ve had this many so far, there are so many more still ahead. And even more beautiful is knowing we’ll have each other for the rest of the golden hours, too.