Should we forget those times? Or perhaps we should never forget, when the past strengthens us, when the past reminds us of who we are and where we belong, of who our friends are. When we remember the good things, and not cry that it's over, but be happy that it happened.

Incidentally, I have a great memory with a friend of mine. Great memories. And this midnight, I think of her and our auld langs. She's my Jo. As in, she's my friend who's name is actually Jo.

The funny thing is, the auld lang in question is when we traveled a great distance to see each other in order to watch a movie. It was the first and so far only time anyone has ever driven outside of their own town to meet me, which has a greater impact on me than people may realize, since otherwise I have always been the one who has had to travel across the country to visit others.

The movie in question was the seventh episode of a popular series. Incidentally, the movie was all about auld langs, and also incidentally, we're watching its sequel next week, which is also about auld langs, but additionally about the future and making way for newe langs. And the film begs the question, shid auld acquaintance be fergot?

I don't think so. But on the other hand, my friendship with Jo is still a fledgling acquaintance in the grand scheme of things. I'm not necessarily going to let the past die, as our lovely movie suggests, but I certainly wish to make that past worth every moment of what it was by building a future worthy of it. I'm optimistic. I believe that the best langs are yit ahead of me. I raise a cup of kindness for those days of newe lang yit. This Hogmanay, I've decided that I'm going to completely embrace my friendship and not treat it like a passing acquaintance. It absolutely deserves to be brought to mind.

Now as it happens, there's another friend of mine. She's my best friend, actually. Back in the day, I gave her a giant, impressive art project when she graduated college. Perhaps I'll share a picture of it someday. The interesting thing is, I gave her that gift in part because I didn't expect anything in return, even a continued friendship. I thought that we would go our separate ways after that. At the time, we were both done with college and moving to other states, but we ended up keeping in contact. We continued to talk. Back when our friendship was only fledgling, but still good enough to give her a tremendous gift, I was content to let go of it and move into the future without her. We now have more memories, even better memories than we ever did before, but if I am to be true to that original turning point in our friendship, I should be able to accept that it's in our past and move on if the time zones and the schooling gets in the way. We made our lives better, and that's what matters. Over Christmas, she told me that she's going to a graduate school in the currently United Kingdom, and there's no telling if our friendship can survive that. If it doesn't, than it's important that I don't let that loss hold me back, or even treat it as a loss. It will be a sign that, perhaps, I am ready for a significant new chapter in my life. There will be new friends, new journeys, new passions to follow. For an optimist who finds meaning in life, who believes that no man is a failure who has friends, it's a wonderful life indeed.