growing up is hard to do.

Last night I went to my very first opening of a mission call. It was... interesting, to say the least. I have a brother, but he didn't serve a mission, and my two closest guy friends won't be serving either. But honestly? I don't think I could have picked a better one to go to.
It was my good friend, my bishopric buddy(I'm the only one who ever refers to him as that, I don't think he even knows I do), and neighbor, Jordan. Now, I've known Jordan for lots of years. We went to Elementary, Jr. High, and High School together. We had plenty of classes. We live just around the corner from each other, it literally takes me less than a minute to walk to his house. But I never REALLY got to know him until this past year or two. I've mostly been friends with his little sister, Arynn, who I've mentioned before and absolutely love. So I guess it was inevitable that I would get to know Jordan. Besides being in the same Sunday School class and all that. This kid, he's great. At first he's a little weird, which is the "reason" I never made an effort to get to know him. That was my "excuse" in Jr. High and such. But, he's turned into one of my favorite people. I don't think anyone in the world knows this. I didn't even realize this until last night.
On to the opening of the call. Naturally, there were a bunch of his friends there, and countless amounts of family. Our age group in the ward is really big, mostly consisting of boys, with two girls. And I think all of us were there.    It was funny [to me] when Jordan was so nervous he could barely get the envelope open. Then he read the entire letter and he's going to the Japan Kobe mission! Now, I have always known about that part. But the rest of the letter? It was interesting to me. It talked about living by the "missionary standard" and a little bit about what it means to be a missionary; who you ARE, what you'll be representing. And as Jordan was reading it, I couldn't help but think of what an AMAZING missionary Jordan is going to be. He really is though. I fully plan on writing him and I can't wait.
After that, all the friends just sat around the room and hung out, reminiscing about high school and talking {normal teenager stuff}. I had never hung out with the majority of the people that were there, even though I have known all of them since Jr. High. But honestly? It was one of the best nights of my entire summer. I loved it! I wish so badly that I would have made an effort to hang out with people other than the ones I hung out with every week. Don't get me wrong, I have really fun friends, but every once in a while it got a little monotonous. This change of scenery [in a sense] was awesome and just what I needed that day. Finally, at 11:00 pm, Jordan kicked the remaining three of us out. Me, Kaden, and Taylor.
None of us really wanted to leave and so we stood around on the sidewalk for about half an hour and just kept talking. Parker ended up coming back and joining us there, and was a great addition. We talked about growing up, marriage, moving away, etc. And we talked about how much we just don't want to. We don't want to grow up. It's scary. It's hard. There is SO much responsibility. But, we gotta.
Lately I've noticed something, and I find it interesting how similar all of us are. I've been getting into blog following and talking to people outside my norm and it's crazy how much I identify with all of them. It's crazy that I'm finding so many people who feel the same way that I've been feeling. They always say that if you feel alone and like no one knows what you're going through, Christ does because of the Atonement. And I fully believe that. And maybe, just maybe, they {Heavenly Father and Christ} make sure we find those on THIS earth who are feeling the same as us too, we just have to be open and looking for them.
Ahh, I'm just so proud of Jordan. I know, it's super cheesy and everything, but I am. He's one of the best kids I know, and I can't wait to see how much good he does on his mission. He will be great. :)

Cheers!
Reille K. :)