Leave is perfect to meet and catch up with friends

The beauty about going on leave is being able to visit or hang out with friends you have been unable to meet in a long time because your schedules can’t seem to align. You keep calling, texting or emailing each other, wondering when you can meet but you fail. Leave is a perfect time to then catch up with these persons because I am freer and can see them at pretty much any time of the day.

So for weeks on end, I kept promising friends that we would meet up once I started leave because I would have time to meet at a place and time of their convenience and we would be able to have a nice long chat and really catch up. After promising all these friends that leave time would be the time, at some point I got a little worried because it felt like I had made way too many appointments. I would have to plan properly in order to be able to meet as many of them. So far, so good.

The priority has been the mothers who have just given birth. It’s been good to see the little babies and appreciate life and where we all start. I also never tire of hearing the birth stories – the panic, confusion, fear and gory messes. It just makes me appreciate motherhood even more.

Then there have been those I have not had a good catch up with in months. Sitting out at long lunches talking, laughing and sighing at life’s experiences has been fun.

There are also the young women who I have made a friendship and whom I try to advise and help out. I have also been meeting these and finding out how they are, what challenges they have met, what successes they have had and we have talked about what we think the future should look like and how to get there.
I have not been able to meet everyone I had planned to yet, but there is still some time left.

And in all the meeting of these people, I have also planned to have time just for me. The grand plan was to go on a two-three day trip to a place I have never been to before and just relax but that plan might have to be shelved for now and pulled out at the next leave.

However, I have also decided that some of these things should not wait for leave. I must and can surely find the time during the week to meet up with those I care about. How else do you ensure your friendships grow, if you do not prioritise or find time for them? How else also, do you keep fresh and alert for the rigorous days at work, if you do not every so often find time to rest and refresh yourself? I therefore just might find some time, out of leave to make that trip by myself. I think I can dare to say, I deserve that.

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