A Post for Jan

Here you go, ole buddy ole pal! On Thursday, we drove to Bellevue (3 hours) and met our long-lost friends Jan and Jordan Bennett for lunch. They live in Missouri but they were visiting family out here for the holidays so we snapped up the chance to catch up. We ate at Dixie’s BBQ, the most unlikely of restaurants to find in fancy Bellevue. The ribs were nearly Southern in quality, and we ate in a grungy ole garage. It was great! We stayed for 2 1/2 hours talking.

Here we are. Jan and Jordan just had their first baby, a little CUTE-cheeked, fuzz-topped girl named Parker Jene. I got to HOLD her. Um, I just noticed that there’s a urinal in the background. Excuse Dixie and her barbecue garage.

A one-photo-post will never do. Since we only took one picture while we were together, I MUST unearth some pictures from the archives of our friendship with these guys. Prepare yourself, I just took a few pictures of my old scrapbook.

First, Jan. Jan and I met at a BYU cross country camp in the summer of 2003. I’d like to think my photography skills have improved since then. Oh, disposable cameras how little I miss you.

We were only 14 and 15! When we parted ways after that one week camp, we never expected to see each other again. I went home to Tennessee, and Jan went home to Oregon.

Laurs, Jeannie, me, and Jan

I went to SVU in 2004, and Jan showed up in the spring of 2005 to tour the campus. Our coach invited her to track practice, and I spent the first 5 minutes or so of practice wracking my brains to remember why she looked so familiar. Then we started talking, and we were so surprised to meet again! She started at SVU in the fall of 2006. I’m very glad neither of us ended up going to BYU.

Jordan, Jeff, and Casey

So Jan came to SVU the same semester that Jordan returned from his mission (I think that’s how it happened). We all ran cross country—that’s a LOT of quality time! No wonder we’re such buddies.

I love this picture. Jan looks so uninterested! Ha, as if.

Good times.

Thanksgiving 2008: me, Jeff’s cousin CJ, Jeff’s brother Sam, Jan, and Jordan. At least Sam was ready for this picture.

Jan and Jordan transferred to Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO starting in fall of 2007 (our coach got a job there). In the summer of 2008, Jeff and I got jobs at Lindenwood’s Boone Campus in Defiance, MO (40 minutes from St. Charles). Our good ole coach, Coach Wright, used his charm and Lindenwood influence to help us find those jobs. Once again, we were near to our pals. We even had them over for Thanksgiving that year.

So there you have it. I think my college friends will always be my best friends. Jeff and I decided that that’s because when we were all single and all on the same cross country team, we spent ALL of our free time together: we were a family. That increases the friendship bond exponentially faster than people we befriend now, because now we see our friends for a mere few minutes at church and if we’re lucky, an hour or two during the week. So it takes longer to build up friendships these days than it used to. Now our first priority is our own family (as it should be) instead of goofing off after (ahem, during) practice. Now it will take YEARS to build friendships as deep as our college ones simply because of TIME. Did that make sense? I don’t mean that I have no hope of any friends in my adult life (because I love my friends here too); I was just commenting on how different friendship is now. I’m thankful for ALL of the stages of life and for ALL the friends that I make in each one.