Constant Change

Last Sunday, March 21, my senior students had their graduation ceremony. In one way or another, all of them had become my friends during their last year in college, when I handled a couple of their classes. A few of them, though, were already my close friends even before that. In this particular batch of graduates, I have the last set of people who knew me when I was still a student.

Graduation is always bittersweet. It's sad for me to realize that I will probably no longer be able to see these friends ever again. What strikes me most, though, is the fact that some of them were really close to me in the past, but no longer are. This is the unfortunate truth about relationships and friendships: they change. It's difficult to maintain an unchanging bond with someone for a long period of time. Things happen, conflicts arise, and people change, or move away. This is not something I realized just now because of my students graduating. It's actually something I noticed from a lot of my past relationships.

This truth brings out a fear in me because I am so scared of losing a person in my life right now. Sadly, it's this very fear that caused me to lose people in the past. I used to be really afraid of giving myself to people. I didn't want to be at the losing end of things. Ironically, it's only now when I'm trying to give myself without holding back and throwing caution to the wind that I feel happy.

I don't how this entry went from graduation to realizations in just a few paragraphs. I guess my point is that nothing is permanent in this world except change. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't give all of ourselves to the people we care about. What is important is the present, and we need to recognize how precious it is and how we should value the people who are currently in our lives. This also is the only way that we will be able to make lasting relationships.