There’s a point to maintaining friendships. But there’s also a point in which you need to listen to your inner voice.
For a weekend trip, my mother and I went to Salt Lake City, Utah. There was a conference happening (RootsTech), and a friend of Mother’s was coming to attend from the swampy state of Florida. It had been years since they had seen each other and she wasn’t going to miss that opportunity to see her when we live just outside in potato-land Idaho. I came along with the promise of going to see some live theatre. Mother suggested since she was meeting with friends I should meet some as well. A couple of people I know live in Utah. I could see my old roommate Tiffany, a friend from my high school days Nikki, or maybe my old improv teammate Zach. Sounds good.
However, as I got closer to the date of leaving I had this feeling that meeting my friends shouldn’t happen. It’s not that I didn’t want to see them (I would’ve loved to have goofy Titan walked with Tiffany), it’s that the focus of the trip needed to be somewhere else. For Mother, the weekend was about reconnecting with old friends. For me, it was about supporting Mother.
Yes, I did get to see The Hunchback of Notre Dame {review here}, and yes, I went to a museum to see someone. But I had wanted to show Mother Hunchback for a while now, and she immensely enjoyed herself. But she suggested going to the museum after I met with someone. That ‘someone’ was the brother of a friend of mine she hadn’t seen in two years. I caught up with him just to record a video message for her. Then we went to the museum per Mother’s suggestion.
I did what my gut told me to do for that weekend. It’s not antisocial, it’s not asocial, it’s doing what I needed to do that weekend. I love my friends, but I needed to put my own inner voice first.
Hugs
Alexandra
Alexandra TG 