There is a sort of cyclical pattern to what I may blog about, and I know “home” is one theme that has come up time and time again. There are numerous definitions and quotes from people explaining just what home is. It truly is one difficult concept to put words to, yet it seems so easy to use the term and understand the meaning. In any event, I can easily now call Denver home. I’m almost scared to say that I went to Red Rocks for the first time tonight… but it was the experience of coming home (to my house) that briefly got me thinking, I know this city. I know as well as any other that Denver isn’t all that large. I also know that after living here for nearly five years, I really should know the city… but there’s something special about driving around or getting around that makes me feel pretty good about it.

One of my favorite aspects is knowing neighborhoods, and not only knowing neighborhoods because I have one friend that lives there, but in many cases it may be a neighborhood where I attended church a few years back, and then had one friend that worked around there. Or perhaps it’s a place where I first went out for a good meal, and now nearby is an apartment for a friend. I love this, I love that I can drive through the city and know it well enough to show it off to people. Moreover, I love that it is home. 

Throughout my life, I’ve had such a large variety of friends who have spanned social groups, classes, activities and given the title of the post, someone’s age. What is so interesting is that it’s often made into such a big deal by many, and from the time that one is really young. I had two sets of siblings as friends prior to grade school, Jonathan and Christian, and Savannah and Audie. In both cases, one was a year older, the other a year younger than me. At that age, I knew how old they were, but it didn’t have much bearing on my interaction with them. In grade school, I had a good bunch of friends who were in my grade alone, but as I got involved in activities outside of school, which encompassed students from other grade levels, I became friends with a larger group, one or two years older than me, or younger than me. Into middle and high school, I had more friends who were a good bit older, and younger, and certainly in college, it became much more comfortable to have friends who were three or four years older. 

Essentially, there seems to be a societal threshold for age. A person can have friends between one age or another, and can date within a different range. I had a conversation with a group of college-friends tonight about the standards of dating. One of the guys I was talking to is dating a girl six years older than him, another friend would never date anyone younger than her. I’ve often told myself that I have these rules, but when it comes down to it, I don’t. If I disregard age completely, if it finds no bearing in the equation of who  I can or can’t date, or who I can or can’t be close friends with, I have a much better chance of making some great friends.

I have a good number of friends who I with whom I graduated from college. I have a large number of friends from my jobs – including managers and bosses. I have quite a few friends who are family to some other friends. The way that I typically meet people produces a large variety of friends, and I love every bit of it. To know that I have a good friend substantially older than me, or that I might date someone who is a bit younger than me, should it actually matter? I think there’s so much more to be concerned with than that stigma of age sameness or difference. Everyone embodies a different maturity level, a different level of intellect and understanding of the world. Everyone has a different perspective and way of thinking of the world. I know I will match up with some better than others, but keeping an open mind about those with whom I spend my time has showed such a great importance. 

When it comes down to it, I love all of my friends, whether they’re 17 or 35. Every last one of them have something brilliant to contribute to my life, and I can only hope that I have the same to offer. For me, whether I can show a hint of maturity, or bring someone to understand how they’ve learned from the place I currently am, I’m glad that those different perspectives have an opportunity to let them play a role. 

I care about age, but I don’t want to. It puts unnecessary limits onto what I should or should not do, and rather superficial limits at that. Knowing how old you are may give me a preliminary gage on how someone might act, or where they may be in their life… but everyone is on such a different path, that I don’t think it’s often accurate at all. I’m preparing myself to be amazed, regardless of your age… it’s often your experiences that matter.