When I was in High School (and a few years after) I worked at a camp. Without question, some of my most fun memories come from the small, humble mountain setting where among others things I made amazing friends. However dear all of these friends were, somewhere along the way we lost touch. There wasn’t anything conflictual – I chalk it up mainly to moving to Arizona for my desert wanderings chapter. And it wasn’t that I forgot the friends, but this was the pre-cell phone pre email era where keeping up on the lives of contacts was a different ballgame than it is today.
Flash forward to creating a Facebook account and you can guess what has happened – yes many of those dear friends have once again become “friends” in a wildly different venue. Some have scattered, some have married, some have divorced, some have come out, some have grown up, some have successful careers, some are unemployed and some have not joined. Tonight, a handful of us who are still local are having a reunion. I am very curious about how this will go.
There is a cynical part of me who sort of thinks if we drifted apart all those years ago, maybe there is something to that. Do we exchange more specific contact info feigning we will stay in touch but the truth is aside from cordial FB posts we will never see one another? Is it possible, to rekindle relationships that were admittedly dear to me in the nineties? I have had great success with high school/childhood friends in this capacity, so perhaps.
The other very strange dynamic with this meeting is we have in fact missed out on large portions of one another’ lives, how do we just gloss over that? For example, one friend who found me on FB when I asked for an update wrote a mini paragraph on my wall that walked me through not only her divorce but her child dying. I was saddened I couldn’t have somehow supported her through these terrible losses but doubly saddened she shared something so painful in a way that felt very impersonal. Certainly there will be others tonight who maybe haven’t had children die but have experienced the death of a parent, a terrible health problem or something else I would have no idea of. How do we catch up on those stories?
Another very certain aspect of tonight will be those I have forgotten. I have received a few friend requests of people I just can’t place but I know I tonight will hang with people who remembered me but who I have forgotten. I am a jerk but my memory isn’t what it used to be.
And finally, I really hope we don’t only go down memory lane. Yes, I can expect recreation of memories stored so deep in the annals of my soul; I will need probing and a glass or two of wine to remember. The truth is this whole era is somewhat of a blur – not a lot of specifics but many generals (if that makes sense). But I’d really like to hear from folks what they are doing now. I don’t want to only remember who we used to be but be able to meet the people we have become.
3 comments:
J, my guess is if the group is more than a handful, you'll experience a range of +/- emotions. Maybe future employment will be a result.
And, most importantly - if you're meetin @ a restaurant give us a little review!
I say take it as it comes. Maybe it will be catch up. Maybe a trip down memory lane. Maybe just talking about present day events. But, it's usually fun to see old friends.
Once you get the catching up out of the way, I bet you'll have a more consistent relationship with these people again. I've lost touch with many people over the years because of moves or career changes, but it doesn't mean I don't still care about them. It's cool that Facebook allows people to get back in touch again.
Have fun with it!!
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