I'm feeling a little down today....here's why. 
Sorry it's so long.
Carly, my best friend in the whole world (other than my husband of course) lives in London, England. She was born and raised in London, and even attended Kings College London for her nursing degree.
We met when I was visiting London when I was 16 years old. It was 1998. She adopted me as her new best friend and showed me all around London and even got me my first "fish and chips". We had fun comparing all the words we said differently, like "tshirt" and "water".
Through the years, we've worked hard at keeping in touch. When we first met, we sent each other a letter a week. At least. It took a while to reach each other, but we didn't care...we just did it anyway. We saved up our money to make phone calls to each other....until we both got mobile phones that were unable to dial international numbers.
Carly flew over to the USA to visit me in 2001. We had an awesome time! In December 2003, Elias and I flew to London to see her and spent 2 weeks visiting, touring around and having fun.
Right after that trip, we worked super-hard at keeping in touch. Emails every week!! But slowly and surely, the emails became once a month....then once every other month. This past year, I might have heard from her twice.
It's not like she's to blame, either....I've been just as bad with communication. I may have written her a time or two more often, but I have cable internet at home. Carly doesn't.
But even though communication has been scarce, I still have thought of her every day. I have wondered how she is and what she's up to. How she's liking work, school, etc. How her friends are and how her parents are...
One can have many friends in their life, but very few friends that reach soul-deep. She's one of those friends to me.
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Well, on Saturday, I received an email from her saying that she's engaged! 
The email was short.....and she didn't even say what his name was. I didn't even know she was dating anyone to begin with. She apologised for her lack of communication and explained that they've been 'courting' since September and have been official since November. They got engaged this past Thursday night when he proposed by the Tower of London.
How could I not have known she's been seriously dating someone since September? How can I know she's engaged and now even know the guy's name?
I can't even call her. And I'm utterly heartbroken over this. I'm happy for her, don't get me wrong. She deserves the best and if this guy is the standard I know she holds for the guys she dates, I know she's found a keeper. I am even hoping that I can save up and go to her wedding.....but she didn't say if she'd set a date for her wedding yet.
Last night, I wrote her a really long e-mail. I poured my heart out in that email and I cried the whole time. After I sent the email, I cried some more. The contents of the email was no more than what I'm saying to you now, but it wasn't what I was saying that made me cry. It's how I felt. How I still feel right now as I'm sharing this with you.
She knew when Eli and I first started dating. When we made it official, I emailed her a picture of him. We chatted on AIM about my new relationship. She knew when it got more serious, and she knew when I got engaged.
But still, I'm sure hearing that I'm engaged to someone she's never met was hard for her, though I didn't think of it that way at the time. Now I know how she must have felt....but ten times worse.
Why are we so opposed to change? Why is hearing this news from her SO VERY hard for me to process?
I can't be a hypocrite by saying I'm opposed to change. I was the first of most of my friend-groups to become engaged and get married. The mere fact that I've been here every moment to experience every little change in my life makes the changes seem so much less drastic. But the fact that I haven't even heard from Carly and out of the blue, she's engaged.....seem so incredibly drastic.
She's still my best girl, even if it takes her two weeks to respond to my email. Change is a part of life, and thank goodness it is! I just wish I could deal with it a little easier.
If you have advice or similar experiences, please share. I need a little cheering up...
