Oh no! I'm one of THOSE people!!

You remember when you were a kid, and there were people (normally friends of your parents or relatives you didn't get to see that often) who would see you and then not see you for some time, and then when they'd see you again, they'd go on and on about how big you've become, how much you've grown, and on and on? And you're thinking "Well, duh, I'm a growing boy. Seriously, what were you expecting, that I'd look like an 8 year old for the rest of my life?" Remember those silly people?

At age 26, I've become one of them.

The Kepley family was a blessing to Calvin's Mu Kappa chapter. They always opened their home to us for meals, retreats and a variety of other activities. Especially us leaders spent a lot of time getting to know them. After I graduated, I stayed somewhat involved with Mu Kappa and also got into a mentorship relationship with Mr. Kepley. Thus, from 2002 to 2008, I got to know the Kepleys, including their daughters, VERY well. By the time I left Grand Rapids, those two fun, sweet, little girls who always had fun with all the college MK's who kept coming to their home, were (I think) 11 and 9. And that was the last time I saw them for over three years.

On the way back from Charlevoix on Friday, we stopped in Grand Rapids to have lunch with the Kepleys. They were excited to meet this girl I met in Maryland and eventually married. But I just couldn't imagine what Rachael and Emilee would look like as teen and preteen. They'd always been little girls! So when we got to that familiar house of so many fun memories, I was shocked to be greeted by two smiling, big girls. They're starting to become women!

I believe part of that has to do with the nomadic lifestyle I've led. I've never spent more than 4 years in a row in the same home. Life moves on, and families move to different horizons (especially ours, maybe), and with time contacts get lost. My longest friendships I still maintain somewhat frequent contact for date back to college, and all those people are around my age, so our lives have been developing in similar stages. I'm not used to having people know me for most of their lives.

So it suddenly struck me as weird that, when I got up to get seconds and Sara commented, "He eats a lot," the 14 year old replied with a smile, "Yeah, we know him." Obviously, I've been in this teenager's life pretty much as long as she can remember! How odd!

But that's a good kind of weird. Familiarity with good friends is nice.