Tuesday's Thoughts: Relationships

This Tuesday I thought that I would share my thoughts on relationships, more specifically different types of high school relationships. I think that this is interesting because when you think about it, a person has so many different types of relationships that they're involved in. For example, I have my closest friends which I share an intimate, in the sense that we can be open with out feelings and share our problems, relationship; with my teachers, coaches, and boss I have a working relationship; with my parents and other family members I have a familial relationship; and every once and a while when I'm lucky, I meet a guy and that turns into a romantic relationship.


However, those four types of relationships don't begin to cover all the people that I see in a day. There are those people who I used to be close to, but now I'm not, with them I have what I would call a drifting relationship; then there are those people with whom I have conversations and talk about things with, but I'll probably never hang out with outside of school, with them I would say that I have a friendly relationship; there are also the people who I have to be nice to, no matter how badly I dislike them, I would call that a love/hate relationship; and finally there are those people who I can't even begin to describe my relationship with and those are the complicated relationships.


Getting back to the four main categories of high school relationships, I think it's amazing to look back and see how they've evolved and who is in what category at the end of high school as compared to the beginning.


For the evolution of intimate relationships with my closest friends I've noticed a big difference. It's sad to see some people drift away from you, but it's inevitably going to happen, especially in high school. High school is the time to develop into the type of person that you want to be, sure, you can change in college, but you're never going to become a completely different person than you were in high school unless something completely drastic occurs. That's why there is normally at least a slight difference in who you're closest friends are when you get to graduation. I know that for me personally, my friendships have changed just because I've realized when I don't want to put myself in certain situations, or have to deal with juvenile and unnecessary fights. Also, I've noticed that they changed as I became more social throughout high school and wanted to do more than just have a movie night every Saturday.
   
I've also noticed a change in my working relationships, and not just that I've had new teachers every year. I've noticed that as high school has progressed, each year the teachers are a little more lenient on what we have to do in class, and that each year my coach gives me a little more responsibility in practice. I love the evolution of these relationships because it proves the changes that I have made in myself are good ones, and that they are noticed by the people around me. Also, this evolution is one that I've noticed has continued even into my workplace. After working as a lifeguard this summer, I've seen how each year you earn more responsibility and more hours to work, which I think is a great system because it would be unreasonable to hold people credible for something if you knew nothing about them.


My familial relationships are the ones that I have not noticed a change in for some reason. Even as I mature, my parents seem to be unwilling to give me more responsibility and freedom. At almost 18 years old, I still have to check in with my parents with everything I do, and not that that is a bad thing, but it just worries me because I don't know how I'm going to respond next year when I'm off at college and have to take complete responsibility. This is why I believe that familial relationships need to evolve too, there needs to be that sense of trust between family members, and there needs to be a higher sense of responsibility as kids mature.


Even though my days in high school aren't completely over yet, they're limited, and even looking back now, it's both funny and sad to see how some relationships have completely faded or changed. For me intimate relationships with friends have turned into drifting relationships, and best friends have even turned into enemies. I can't help but wonder what my relationships will be like when I walk across the stage to receive my diploma in June, or what they'll be like coming back for future class reunions, but that's the funny thing about relationships, they never truly stop evolving, they're a constant work in progress.

Monday Check In

Obsessing over: The book Classy by Derek Blasberg. My friend gave it to me as an early Christmas present and after flipping through it I can tell that it is going to be a great book to go to for tips, I'm just hoping that I can find the time to read it completely soon!

Working on: A sleep lab for psychology. Learning about sleeping disorders isn't the most exciting thing to most people, but I think it's sort of interesting.

Thinking about: What to wear tomorrow. It's supposed to be cold and rainy but I don't want to wear just a rain jacket, that's so boring. Maybe I'll wear a scarf with it or something? 

Anticipating: English tomorrow, and not in a good way. As juvenile as it sounds, I don't want to face the guy that I just told I don't want to be anything more than friends with, I feel horrible about it and I'm awful in awkward situations.

Drinking: Water, I have to rehydrate from practice today!

Wishing: That I already knew what school I was going to next year, or even just if I got accepted to South Carolina, only three more weeks until I find out!