hyperspeed

Let's be real here.

I've been at this place called "college" for about 2.5 years now (almost 3 academic year-wise) and I have built these things called "friendships," some very close and meaningful. But if you really think about it, 2.5 years is a pretty short amount of time. Considering some people have friends from when they were born, or some people have friends here in the Philadelphia area that they've known since middle school...2.5 is like nothing. A blip on the timeline of life.

And yet, why does it feel like I've known certain people for like 10 years? I remember life without these people, 2.5 years ago, pretty clearly, but while those memories seem to be playing in my mind in black-and-white, these people I see day-in and day-out are in bright and poppin' color! And I wonder if it's the nature of college itself (i.e. the fact that we live, eat, study, play, breathe in the lovely Philly air together every single day at every single hour)...or if it's the nature of GCC.

There's just something about the culture of GCC, or...I guess the culture of Christianity/Christian fellowship in general, that makes it so conducive to soul-bearing and sin-sharing (not sharing in sin together, but sharing about our sins and working through them together). Yes, we are strong together in Christ, but more importantly, we're utterly weak together. Asking for prayer requests and receiving prayer, confessing to and rebuking one another, crying and shouting out loud together...I don't know. It's so hard to imagine how I ever went through my weeks without talking to someone (or like 10 someones haha) about my walk or my spiritual struggles because honestly, that's the REAL stuff. That's the nitty gritty stuff that you try to hide from other people or even yourself, so I wonder how I thought my relationships in high school were deep. Granted, common experiences and common friends and sometimes even common visions for the future were all things that linked us together, and to a certain extent, that was definitely enough. I loved/love my high school friends and acquaintances, and God brought those people into my life during that time for a reason.

But man, I don't know. There is something seriously deeper about the friendships I have made and built in college - it's like MAX impact MIN time...it's like...a REALLY sour warhead candy - it's a tiny piece of candy but it hits you with crazy sourness (I know, warheads actually aren't that sour..but imagine a really sour one hahaha) I can hardly imagine what it'll be like to have been friends with someone for 30 years considering for some people, I feel like I know them inside and out already...ONLY after 2.5 years. I find myself saying, "You know how you always," or "Typical. So predictable," or "Knowing you"...and yet, how would I know that they have always been this way or that they think/talk/act a certain way?

[Of course, I will admit that I am the type of person that wants to know everything and anything about you as fast as possible. I don't know why, but I'm not the type to just let things...sit and develop over years and years and years. Maybe it's just my impatient nature, or maybe it's my bare-it-all-and-then-take-it-or-leave-it tendencies, or maybe it's my deep desire for efficiency (yes, I slack unashamedly many times, but I think deep down....I promise! I really like/need efficiency) but I like the feeling of really knowing someone even if it's only been a short while. (Is that...creepy? O.o)]

But once I take a step back from my hyperspeed relationship building ways, it's like...wow. It's honestly only been this short...but what's crazy about the relationships I am building now through the fellowship of Christ is that they will be ETERNAL. So ultimately it doesn't matter whether it's been 2.5 years or 10 years or 20 years because they will be foreeeeeeeeever and eeeeeeeeeever and eeeeeeeeeeever!!!

That's whack!