Let's start with Jessica since she's #1 on the list. During each phase of my life there has been a Jessica. Jessica from my years living in MD who has been one of my closest friends since high school through today, where she still lives in my hometown (or now lives-she used to be in PA) with her husband. Then there was Jess from my college days who was a fellow tour guide at Liberty. We often were mistaken as sisters, to which we gladly played along with while leading innocent families and teenage boys around campus :) She is originally from CA and her close proximetry to me led to some fun LA adventures. You'll recognize her from some previous posts. Then there was Jess at work in NC. Jess and I didn't overlap too long at Duke but we've found each other out in Cali! My first official day here was spent grabbing some fro-yo with her and we spent hours just gabbing away about "living the dream" at Duke and how travel nursing has molded us, as well as general stories on our life experiences. She's such a well educated and broadly traveled person---I aspire to have her knowledge and experiences! But we don't want "Jennifer" to feel second rate so I better move on.
Not many non-Californians can boast having a good friend named Jenn in each region of California and to add to that exclusivity, we all originally met in NC! There is So-Cal Jenn, Central Coast Jenn, and now NorCal Jenn. Central Coast Jenn and I used to attend the same church in Raleigh (Providence) and while we were in the same singles ministry it wasn't until after she moved to Cali that our friendship really began. It has been so sweet to spend time with her and her husband, and they are so generous in their hospitality. Several times now I've spent the night while passing through town, and they even invited me to tag along to Disneyland with them on New Years. Did I ever post about that? The other Jenn I've been spending time with recently is a former coworker of mine from when I was staff at Duke. I always knew she was a fun girl, but we were just in different units and different groups. We ran into each other a few times while both travel nursing in DC and I began to see just how much fun she was and wondering why I didn't get to know her better during our Duke days! Now we're both out in NorCal (again accidental, but totally providential) at the same hospital, and in the same apartment complex. I feel so blessed to have found this new friendship with her as we are able to share memories from Duke and the special people and patients from there, but also build on this newfound friendship as we explore the Bay Area together...including trying to find a church! Just this past week we went to a church she'd found and I felt quite at home and already it felt much more personal than my LA church experiences. I'm looking forward to being a part of a church group, and tomorrow night if I'm feeling really brave I might join some complete strangers from Grace Pres at a local pub in my attempt to make more friends!
Do you have multiple friends with same name? Do any of them share these commonalities in your life? Also, I'd like to apologize if your name is any derivative of Jessica or Jennifer and you feel left out, that was not my intent. I also apologize if your name is neither of the above and I was not trying to in any way make you feel less important in my life!
Here is a pic of me with my NorCal Jenn (left) & Jess (right)!
No comments:
Post a Comment