Approaching this summer, I am hit with a startling reality: my weekends are booked up for the weddings of my friends. My refrigerator is covered in save-the-dates and invitations, and my bank account is being emptied into wedding registries. And it seems like every day I see another photo of another engagement. This is a fun period of life, seeing my friends find their life partners, someones “marrying their everyones,” as E.E. Cummings wrote. I love nothing more than to celebrate the love of two people, especially when they are two people that I love, too. And somehow, I have worked my way into being an usher in several weddings, and I don’t even know what being an usher means. I think it’s like being a JV groomsman—I’ll take it.

But as I prepare for the upcoming summer wedding season, I have to consider the unique season of life that I have found myself in. It’s a time where simply being the same age does not necessarily mean being in the same phase of life anymore. It’s a season that coincides with a multitude of different seasons.

Some of my friends have started their careers, others their families, some both, and others are still trying to figure out what they even want their lives to look like.

Whatever season we may find ourselves in, it is an uncertain time for many, as all the doors that seemed to be open begin to close, and we hope we are choosing the right doors as we move forward.

I have had several conversations with friends over the past several weeks, as anxieties about the future have taken hold of our busy minds, and it has come to my own busy mind that we are all running different races at different paces. There’s a beauty in this phase as we figure out how our passions collide with our purpose, as we fall in love and nervously make our way through job interviews and get down on one knee and walk at graduation, and as we support each other through it all.

Franklin Norton can be contacted at [email protected].