Friends

Last week I meet up with a couple of friends who I hadn't seen for a long time - one was just over two years the other was almost 5 years ago. They are best of friends and have been since they were at school - we are now all in our early to mid forties!

The one who I haven't seen for almost 5 years now lives in Belgium and I have recently contacted her through Facebook - that wonderful communicator :)

The other I have exchanged Christmas cards with and seen on the odd occasion for a meal.

How did I meet them?

I started school in January 1974 just before my 4th birthday. I made my best friend for the whole of my schooling on that day - Philippa. We went to each others houses for tea each week, had sleepovers at each others houses - you get the picture. We stayed best friends until we left school at 16 and went to the local sixth form college. There we made new friends and started to drift apart.

The summer we were 15, we went camping at a campsite on the edge of Dartmoor - the River Dart Country Park. Philippa had been camping there from the age of about 10 with her parents in their caravan. She had met lots of people who lived and worked at the campsite and enjoyed going there every year. That year 6 of us from our school class went there and camped in a big tent with Philippa's parents opposite us in their caravan.

We went for two weeks - none of us had ever camped before :)

At the beginning of our second week 2 boys and 2 girls arrived with their families - one brother and sister had travelled from Scotland to Corby, met up with the other brother and sister and then they had all travelled down to the campsite for their annual family get togethers. The boys were big fans of U2- the Joshua Tree was the album at the time.They were dressed very much as the band U2 did at the time. Of course, 6 Convent girls in a tent - a lot of swooning took place I can tell you!

Anyway, as the week went on, we all got talking and ended up getting on very well, which ended up in us all swapping addresses - letters had to be written as it was a long time before the Internet was this popular - and we all agreed to meet there again the following year!

Fast forward onto the next summer - O levels taken, lots of spare time. We all meet up - parents happy to cart us to the campsite and we had two weeks of great fun.

Agreed to do it all again the following year, by this time, we are all driving and managed to get ourselves to the campsite.

I stayed in contact with these friends the most out of all of us, so in the October of 1987 - the day after the hurricane had hit the UK, I travelled up to Corby by coach for Franny's 18th birthday. This was a fantastic weekend and I made the decision that weekend that when I applied to nursing college, one in the area of Corby would be top of my list.

I applied for nursing college in the January of 1989, interviews were finally held in April that year - I had interviews in my top three choices - Leicester, Redhill and Roehampton. All offered me a space and I chose Leicester - the one with the longest wait. I finally moved there in March 1990.

Throughout my nurse training I frequently spent my spare time in Corby. I had some very good friends there.

I made some very good friends during my training.

I met my husband, made the decision to stay in the Midlands, bought houses, got married, had a child, made some bad career choices - not for the friends I made but for the direction my career took me in and how it made me feel!

And now arrive at my current life :)

If my parents had not decided to send me to that primary school, I would not have met Philippa or been anywhere else in my life. I would not be in the fortunate position of having a wonderful husband and son. Happy - well most days - in my work, with some great friends who I may not see for over 5 years but still be able to pick up that friendship easily even after all that time.

So, I suppose I want to say a big thank you to my parents for sending me to my school so that I could meet my friends and my family :)