On Friday, one of my best friends said we needed a group picture because it might be our last. I shook my head and told her not to say that. But you know what? She might be right. We’re growing up and going our separate ways. While I know we’ll always care about each other and always be around to listen when necessary and laugh at something no one else will get, our times of constant togetherness are coming to a close.

And yes, it is sad. But all the same it feels time. I’m not a nervous wreck about it like I was last year after graduation. I’ve recognized that the people I care about really will always be there if I let them and make an effort. Once the friendship has been forged and proven time and again, distance and physical contact really makes very little difference.

All the same, it will be strange not having her around this summer, or in the area for extended periods of time potentially ever again.

And I look at my two best friends and I and our perspectives on life between high school and now and I wonder if our inclination was not always to run. Surely, the valley is not a place you should necessarily always remain, and above all, you should not allow it to take captive your dreams and aspirations, but in the end, is the place really such a terrible way point?

Within those beautiful hills is our childhood, our random adventures, our ridiculous times, and I have to wonder if we wasted it wishing to escape and fail to appreciate it when we return by concentrating on how much we hate being there.

Roots are important. Some people feel suffocated by them, others are made complacent. I’ve been down both roads and now am happy to say that I feel I have found the Middle Path. Duvall is not where I want to spend the rest of my life. But I’m not going to run from it just for the sake of getting away. It has so much else to offer. I have learned so much from the “natives” about appreciating the moment and the intersection that I never learned when I constantly focused on getting the hell out.

It’s important to grow up and move out and on, but it’s also important to never forget where you come from and how much that has affected who you are, for better and for worse.

And every so often we have to evaluate if we’re running from our roots just for the sake of pretending we’re actually getting away, or allowing our roots to suffocate our aspirations just for the sake of doing what is, in many ways, easier.

I was running just for the sake of running. And I wonder if my friends are doing the same. But these are questions that I can’t answer.