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	<title>i wish i knew &#187; on my soapbox</title>
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	<link>http://marialaitan.com</link>
	<description>endlessly curious</description>
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		<title>people, experiences, memories</title>
		<link>http://marialaitan.com/2010/07/people-experiences-memories/</link>
		<comments>http://marialaitan.com/2010/07/people-experiences-memories/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:17:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[perfectly maria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[random thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[on my soapbox]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marialaitan.com/?p=457</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the past couple years, Lisa and I have planned a girls&#8217; weekend.  And for the past couple years it&#8217;s been just the two of us that participate because it&#8217;s so hard to get people together.  When you graduate high school and go to college it&#8217;s all about making friends, hanging out in groups and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For the past couple years, Lisa and I have planned a girls&#8217; weekend.  And for the past couple years it&#8217;s been just the two of us that participate because it&#8217;s so hard to get people together.  When you graduate high school and go to college it&#8217;s all about making friends, hanging out in groups and having a good time.  You would rearrange all kinds of plans if something else looked more fun.   Then real life kicks in, you graduate, find a job and slowly transform into someone you don&#8217;t exactly recognize.</p>
<p>Responsibilities start piling up and before you know it you&#8217;ve lost touch with people that used to consume your life.  You weed out people you don&#8217;t need to talk to and squeeze in minimal amounts of time with others.    Those goofy pictures you saw of adults juggling all these balls and looking frustrated and miserable?  It&#8217;s for real, it really does feel like that.</p>
<p>Simply put, this sucks.</p>
<p><em><span style="color: #888888;">(Yes, I&#8217;m a college graduate who still uses: For real, this sucks, no way, that&#8217;s cool, bummer and many other phrases that would have both my English and journalism professors cringing.  If I close my eyes I can see Lessenberry&#8217;s chicken scratch all over this post.) </span></em></p>
<p>I&#8217;m a firm believer that life doesn&#8217;t have to be as complicated as we make it.  I think the first step is to stop being so complacent, letting life&#8217;s current just take you.  I&#8217;m extremely guilty of this.  It&#8217;s much easier than to actually make decisions, especially hard ones.</p>
<p>The past year seemed like a game of monopoly.  Buying properties because it was feasible and it&#8217;s a &#8220;good time to buy&#8221;.  I&#8217;m grateful for it all but it just adds a lot more pressure.  More bills to pay, more things to clean, more plans to make and less time to chill.  Yes, I&#8217;m 28 and sometimes I would really just like to be 18 again (let&#8217;s be honest, I only act my age 75% of the time).  18 was a very good year, the first 6 months anyways.</p>
<p>This is getting ridiculously off track.</p>
<p>Lisa and I have added one more participant to the 3rd annual girl&#8217;s weekend.  Sad it&#8217;s only one but I&#8217;ll take it.  All relationships take time and effort, including friendships.  If you haven&#8217;t seen your friends in awhile maybe you need to take a step back, re-evaluate and simplify.  Things don&#8217;t make us happy; it&#8217;s people, experiences and memories.</p>
<p><em><span style="color: #888888;">*jumping down from my soapbox*</span></em></p>


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