Stand By Me

I was home last night, lying on the couch just feeling blah.  Stand By Me, an old classic, came on TV.  Since I wasn't feeling too well, I laid there and watched the whole flick.  Every time I watch movies about writers, it makes me want to start a novel, a children's book, or whatever the main character is attempting to author.

The movie is about a boy and his three best friends.  It brought me back to my childhood and made me think of the people whom I would have considered to be in my "gang."  Do we still stand by one another?  I would say that my gang was most important to me from the ages of fourteen to sixteen.  Some of the guys even bought matching jackets from a popular teen clothing store.  The leader of our group had a black jacket and all the other guys got theirs in green.  A couple of the girls bought the same jacket in red and I wanted one more than anything.  My mom said I needed to let the guys have their thing and skip the matching jacket.  I was devastated.

Our leader is still around, married with a daughter, and his sister is here with two kids.  The person I considered to be my BFF got pregnant, married, and was left alone three weeks after the wedding.  One friend lives in Texas, another in Georgia, and two in Tennessee.  One girl moved away somewhere, and joined a folk band, of all things.

These people who were once my world are now scattered around the country.  Some of them I haven't spoken to in years.  I've seen some of them go through trials and devastation and have tried to stand by them.  A couple of them turned out to be exactly what I thought they'd be.

I look at my oldest son who is just beginning this stage in life.  Who will be his lifelong friends?  He doesn't seem to have that group yet like I had growing up.  Maybe it will come in time.  Who will he be- the leader, the nerd, the comic relief?  Above all, I just hope he makes the right decisions and chooses the right friends.  Who you hang out with can make you or break you in life.