i met up with some old friends at the beach this weekend

A narrator recalls a recent experience with his old and distancing friends.

Director, Editor: Riley Hamilton
Music: Hayes Mabry
Cast: Austin Juno, Will Paley, Heath Tucker, Tate Wynne

This story was generated mostly out of fear of losing my friends. I had developed solid, foundational relationships with my friends in high school and college. It’s really difficult to find people that you feel comfortable with, trust, and deeply care about. Once we graduate, whether they’re high school or college friends, everyone spreads out across the country. When that happens, those friendships have a tough time remaining intact, or at the very least, the same. This is especially true in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. It just adds another layer of complication to maintaining those friendships.
Change always happens in front of us, even when we don’t want it to. And as things change, our perspectives change- like when happy memories, or any memories we can remember with friends, suddenly become drenched in melancholy because that moment will never happen again. My greatest comforts and sadnesses have been found in the memories of my friendships. My life in a post-college and mid-pandemic world has taught me this: Change is inevitable. Friendship is not. I worry that my fear will come true.