When we got engaged last September, I was excited to start planning the wedding and celebrations I had dreamed of years and years ago. As we sat down to make a list of all the people we wanted to invite, I realized that my large guestlist wedding no longer made sense, but most of all because I felt I had turned around and all of a sudden close friendships had changed.

I had spent the last 10 years taking off for foreign lands, and long term trips and left my groups back in my hometown to continue on with their life.

I was no longer easy to get a hold of to hang out, I wasn’t always there for birthdays, I was gone and I had prioritized meeting new people, seeing new places and in essence, leaving them.

Here is what I have experienced in planning our next steps in life and how things have changed as I’ve grown up and made the choices I’ve made.