I feel horrible! In the last few months, I have gotten so busy with life and work that I have neglected some of my friendships.
As I’ve said before, I work as an Admission Counselor at a college in the Southern California area. It has kept me quite busy this entire academic year – much more than the previous year.
In September (2007) I started my recruiting on the road and didn’t get back to a regular schedule until December. I was visiting high schools and college fairs locally, as well as many in different states.
From December to March, I did a lot of making decisions on application files. The territory that I recruit from brings in the most applications in my office. So, I have to read the application, read the personal statement, calculate the GPA, read the recommendations and make a decision as to whether I feel the student has the potential to do well at the university. Also doing this time, I had to continue with my other job duties, such as being the lead planner on our largest event of the year – our admitted student day.
And from March until now, I have been trying to bring in the new class. This has been quite an obstacle. With the poor economy, many of the smaller, private universities are having a hard time meeting our numbers, and the university I work for is no exception.
This whole year I have been working a lot of extra hours because this year it has been harder to recruit and yield a new class. I also have other things going on in my life such as trying to plan a wedding and doing work on our home… these things have also kept me quite busy.
With all of that, I have neglected a few of my friendships. The friends that live close have been easy because I see them on a regular basis. But, I have quite a few friends that don’t live close to me any more. I went to college away from home in the San Francisco Bay Area and many of my friends still live there. After going to school up there and staying there for a few years to work, I finally made the decision to come back home to be closer to family. Anyway, I never forget those friends, but I haven’t stayed in contact with them the way that I would have liked. They always cross my mind, at least once a day, but it’s usually when I’m busy and then I don’t think about it again.
What brought this up was a friend of mine left me a comment on MySpace saying, “Hi I noticed that you were on my friends list and I wanted to introduce myself.” I know he was being funny, but he said it because we haven’t been in contact for a while… not even email.
Therefore, from this day on, I vow that I will not neglect my friendships the way that I have this year. I am pretty lucky – I have great friends that truly understand how busy I am and will always forgive me for not being as available as I should. But, it’s not fair to them that I’m not around as much as I should. So, I’m going to take time out for them at least once a week to give them a call, send them an email or make plans with them. Even during my busy times of the year, I find time to watch television. Usually, what I’m watching on television is not important – just mind-numbing entertainment. I could be using that time to spend time with my friends that bring joy to my life!
