What I miss most about Friday's

I have lived in McMinnville for almost eight years… so it is interesting that it has only been in the last six months that I’ve really started to have a sense of community. I’m not sure why it took it so long to fall into place, but I’m finally to the point where I see people that I know at the Farmer’s market, run into acquaintances at restaurants, and can usually find someone to stop and talk to as I was down Third Street. But as we are headed towards 2011, I am already starting to feel a void in my community setting…

I think the cause is two-fold… 

Firstly, my seven months yoga program is coming to an end. Though I still have strong ties to my yoga studio and the people in it… there was a core group of us who spent a significant amount of time together every week. Not only did we have our teacher training class together, but there would always be familiar faces sprinkled into yoga classes throughout the week. Now that we have all taken our tests, and most of us are finished, or close to finishing up with our required hours, the familiar faces are becoming less frequent. I suddenly have a three hour chunk of free time on Wednesday afternoons. What was once filled with study, and interaction, and philosophical discussions is now a wide open space. I still have about fourteen hours of class-time left, and as I head to class daily I keep expecting to see my fellow teacher trainers… and I do, but with far less frequency. In some cases that is probably good… there was no one I was really close to in class on Tuesday when I started openly crying (hip openers + emotional day= tears in yoga, and lots of them). But I miss my partners in crime… especially since we are all getting ready to go out and start teaching… These are my people, and we have had an awful lot of similar experiences, and we are all mostly going through the same thing right now.

Over the past few months I also started making new friends through Friday Morning Networking… And I still go, but post-breakup it’s a little different. We are all adults, but at the end of the day, they were his friends first, and his best friends… so while I was on my way to feeling like part of a group, I’m sort of back to “groupie” status. There are still smiles and hugs, and friendly chit chat, but its different. There are no more early morning coffee rendezvous, no impromptu stops for breakfast burritos before heading off to work. No walking to the post office before going out and starting the work day. No more being a part of someone else’s routine.  I know it’s weird that the part I miss most about Friday’s is walking to the post office after a refill of coffee, but it is. I miss the everyday moments of feeling like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

In the long run, I know my “community” isn’t really going anywhere… it’s just shifting… and on some levels I have been craving a change… Its just too bad that the same time I’m starting my own endeavors I feel slightly estranged from all the young business owners I know. As I’m embarking on unknown territory I feel like there are fewer people to bounce ideas off of, and therefore less support. It’s partially in my head… and partially not. In the meantime I’m cursing the fact that I didn’t have him design my business cards three months ago, and am looking for something to do on Wednesday afternoons.