Grad school was like that for my HCBW and I. AMAZING friends and community. SOO fun to be a ward that was mostly all grad students and professional students and university professors and such. Just amazing people. And since we were all in the similar stage of life, great bonding and friendships.

Then we moved ... next ward and community was SUCH a let down after that ward. We never really felt part of that community.

Then we moved again ... and that next area was much like Grad School community, BUT even better since most of those families were solid and stable and here for YEARS and DECADES rather than just a few years in grad school.

Our youngest graduated this year, and we had a group graduation party for his group of seniors.... We all laughed that nearly every group picture of those kids we had in the slide shows had the OTHER kids in the background somewhere. Look a soccer team photo when they were 8, and A, B, and C were on the team. Look, a primary class photo from when they were in nursery, and all of them are in it. Look, there is the group Prom photo, and that whole group is in there together. Look, there is cross country team picture, and there is 4 of them again...

And likewise, we have people in this community that we have shared experiences with common aged kids over nearly two decades now.

What is my point ... YOU now know what that community CAN and should feel like. You know the tremendous value of that community of close amazing people and how it can make you feel and grow and develop. BUILD IT AGAIN wherever you land next. If it's not there (and our second ward after leaving grad school was NOT that at all), find it and build it. IT CAN be done, and you know it can be ... so make it again. But this next time, you make it decades and not for years....

Good luck on the next adventure ... you have seen the amazing community that can be .... and build on that for the rest of your life.

We bump into people from that first grad school ward every now and then ... and we love them still. We have had a few people move into our current ward FROM that area, and they too bring that vision of what an amazing community can be ...and they help build the longer lasting one here were we are now...

GO GET EM..... the next place probably won't be the same, BUT you can MAKE it into that if you want.