Sitting in the driver’s seat, I struggled to focus on my task behind the wheel.
My vehicle was filled with myself and four teenage bodies.
Driving ‘shot gun’ was our DJ for the ride. He plus two of the back seaters had started school together. They have gone through the trials and excitement of starting kindergarten, school trips, group assignments, team sports, puberty, crushes on girls and pounding on each other on the playground.
Those three … they are friends.
Perfect, inseparable, ever-loving friends?
NO!
They have fought, cursed each other (out loud and silently), ignored each other, and put their individual self ahead of the others.
In other words, they are real friends.
I have had friends like that over the years too. Friends who are close for a season, then not so close. Friends who have ignored me. Friends who I have put behind my own desires.
But, back to my journey.
We had been on a school-related outing for the day.
Our DJ for the drive had hooked his phone up to my vehicle, and he was confidently rocking to the music … hitting every note … I mean EVERY note that exists! He was revelling in sharing his favourites, at very high volumes.
Some days I really struggle with how to ensure that this young man has interactions with friends. After all, he lives life with a diagnosis, and developmental issues that make it harder for him to ‘keep up’, socially with his peers.
But, this day, in my vehicle with these young men, I realized how very far school has come, since I was there age, when I had little interaction with the students of similar diagnosis.
Now these are not perfect, inseparable, ever-loving friends.
They have fought, cursed each other (out loud and silently), ignored each other, and put their individual self ahead of the others.
In other words, they are real friends.
We all sang along with him, for a few lines of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.
He LOVED it … and sang louder.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, I struggled to focus on my task behind the wheel.
Because the joy of everyone in my vehicle shone on the faces of all within, and it reminded me that when it comes to friendships, we should never stop believing.
itsawonderfilledlife 