Keeping Close and Drifting Apart

The transition of leaving university and moving back home is a funny one. You get used to the freedom and independence of living away from home and doing what you want, when you want. When I first moved back home after graduating I wondered how and if I would get used to living with my parents again but as time has gone on its not so strange to feel 17 again! (plus my parents are very relaxed and more like friends rather than of a nagging or strict nature - thankfully!). 

The hardest part of leaving university is not being able to see your friends so easily but I really like to think its true when people say you will make some of your life-long friends at uni (my dad has managed to keep in close contact with some of his uni friends even without the beautiful wonder that is modern technology - so that gives me some hope I can do the same!)

It should be easier than ever to keep in contact with others now that mobile phones and social media sites are used by so many people but it is still inevitable that you will drift apart from people you were once quite chummy with. This is a natural part of life but I think that making the effort to keep in contact with old friends (whether from school, uni, work etc.) really makes the difference between someone being part of your everyday thoughts and someone existing as just a memory.

We can all think of people we were once fairly close with but no longer are and it can make you feel a tad guilty that maybe you didn't make enough effort to stay in touch. Of course this process is a two way thing - that person is probably thinking the same thing about themselves from time to time!

Maybe part of the problem in this modern era is we feel we are keeping in touch with people as we see what they are up to on sites such as Facebook and Twitter yet we may not have had an actual conversation with them for weeks, months, maybe years! Sadly our culture seems to have got lazier.

Do you feel it is too easy to rely on social media sites to catch up on what people are up to rather than keep in contact the old fashioned way? Xx