"Wow, I do have friends"
This morning, I dropped my proverbial baby brother Sam off at the airport. After sleeping on my couch that he helped set up the night before, he changed his socks, checked over his overstuffed suitcase, moved some stuff to his backpack, and we headed to MSP on my way to work. He was leaving for Japan for his first job out of college as a teaching intern for math and science at a school in Tokyo. Before I watched him roll his suitcase away, he wrapped me in a hug and said, "See you soon." My eyes welled up as I continued driving to work. They welled up when he texted me, "We're taking off, love you," and they're welling up as I'm writing this after work while he's still on his flight. This year, I'm becoming more intimately familiar with my friends moving away. I'm trying to get better at maintaining friendships (both in person and long distance) better than I did when I was in high school and maybe even college. When I was a sophomore in high...