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Facebook.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you either have a Facebook account or at least have heard about it. What started as a means for college students to stay in touch, has turned into a social media mogul that has become so mainstream that even my parents have a profile. {sorry mom & dad!}

But beyond the random status updates, shared links, postings on Mafia Wars {still have NO clue what that is!} something so much more significant happens.

In a day

where people move frequently and far from where they originally grew up

where going off to school can mean across the country or around the world

where overworked parents and overbooked kids barely have time to sit down to dinner as a family, much less have time to pick up the phone and catch up with old friends

where jobs switch so often that almost no one is with a company for 30 years anymore

Facebook has helped us all stay connected with our past. We now have a way to stay in touch with so many people that have made us who we are today, and the real advantage is it can be when you have a few minutes to kill whenever it's convenient for you. The same things that people complain about {no one actually writes anymore} are exactly what makes staying in touch with all these people possible.

And these are people that I have loved, shared with, cried with, laughed with, grew up with, worked with, learned from.... these are people that have made me ME.

Sometimes we laugh about an old inside joke. At 2am when I can't sleep from my cell phone I can see the newest pictures of my best friend Adam's kids that I haven't seen in months. I am inspired by who the kids that I played with on the playground have become as adults. I can wish my friends a happy birthday because I really am thinking about them even though I didn't have the time to send that card. I can see the pictures of Alyssa's garden and house and how much they have grown since I was there ten years ago and it was all just being built and planted. I grew up with about 21 kids on Drexel Court and am able to stay connected with 10 plus a few stragglers from Amherst Road. I can read a status message and know when a friend might need some cheering up. We can broadcast our lives to those we let in and letting people in is something our generation has kind of failed at. The busier we get, the more often I hear people feeling like they are alone and out of touch.

Instead of feeling guilty about the lack of time and the friendships lost, technology has finally caught on and given our ADD society a tool. Instead of complaining about what its not, let's actually embrace what it is. Look at your friend list and ask yourself how many of those people had you thought about over the years and wondered what they were up to. And now, with a quick click on "like" a little thumb pops up to let them know their thought was heard and you are there.

And really, isn't that JUST the thing we sometimes need?

rachel