In my closet hangs a chocolate brown satin dress from Ann Taylor. It’s not something I particularly like, or would have purchased under my own free will – this frock is a bridesmaid’s dress for my friend’s wedding.

It’s a funny thing when your friends start getting married. When I was younger, I attended my aunt’s wedding, then my older cousins’ weddings, but now some of my older friends are getting married. The mini-fridge in my dorm room is covered in invitation magnets for the weddings I am invited to over the next year.

While I love each of my friend’s new fiancées, I know my friendships will likely never be the same. Phone calls have changed from giggly gossip about boys to discussions about the relative merits of cotton over linen napkins and the difference between the colours coral and persimmon.

I have sat through dinner conversation about the latest in vacuum technology and the current real estate market. It isn’t that my friends have no regard for what I might be interested in, it’s that we’re just at different places in life. While they are waiting for important phone calls from the wedding planner, I am waiting to hear if I got into graduate school for the fall or about a job for after I graduate in April.

I am more than happy to share in these exciting times with my friends, and to actually consider the fact that linen napkins might wrinkle easily and that the redder shade of persimmon might clash with what the mother of the groom is wearing, because I know when it is my turn, many weddings from now, my friends will be right there with me.