Friendships.

This post is about maintaining important friendships over time. Our lives can be separated into distinct segments. In my case those segments would be high school, college, active duty in the Navy, teaching in Hibbing, and teaching at Itasca.

During each of these times we build significant friendships. Unfortunately, it is easy to lose contact with these important people after you transition and move on.

I strongly encourage you to work extra hard to maintain the relationships. This weekend Brad and I went to Robb's cabin up in Orr for a night of poker and friendship. The three of us along with Scott, Todd, and Nate were good friends back when they were students and I was their teacher at HCC. We have maintained contact, but started last year planning one weekend each Spring to get together.

This is an emotionally powerful thing to do. It takes effort, but is more than worth it.