I met my friend Corey for lunch today. I hadn’t seen him in more than a year; since we last met, he and his wife welcomed a daughter into the world and are expecting another child around Christmas.

The conversation was quite pleasant. I can tell that Corey’s perspectives on a lot of things are shifting. The discussion, for example, wasn’t focused on the past, but rather on the present.

As I look with growing horror at the big three-oh in September, I can’t help but reflect on how others have developed over the years. People like Corey, Rick, Duane and Tony have grown much in the years that I’ve known them. Probably Emilie, too, although I haven’t seen her in far too long. As for the rest I’ve encountered … of those I’ve known well, most have not (yet) adjusted well to life after the extended adolescence afforded by years of undergraduate education. And that’s a shame.

As Corey and I discussed — you can tell who has made peace with their new reality by judging what you talk about. With some people, all you can do is engage in acts of social memory, as if the ability to make new memories has somehow been obliterated. With others, the now-and-to-be is more important. These people, they get it. Fundamentally, they get it.

On the bright side, I have reason to add one more friend to my “get together at least once per fiscal quarter” list. Ha.