met up with old friends last week. the strangeness of seeing how someone you knew so well 10 years ago, and how they have become. the nostalgia when we are reminiscing. the slight awkwardness when we realize there are things that have happened in our lives that the other would have no idea about. the farewell, immensely glad that we have met up, yet, uncertain when we would meet again.
trying to reconnect despite a 10 year gap, in the short hour or two, is somewhat of a phenomenal task. we have obviously changed. our hairstyles are different. we dress different. our hobbies have changed. we played the violin, but none of us has really touched it for years. we've had a couple of tough relationships. this is starting to sound like those email forwards about the 30-year old crisis so i'll stop.
so in the short hour or two, we attempt to find out as much as possible about what happened to the other. i think it is not so much what happened, but why we took a particular road, given the umpteenth possibilites - that we find out more about each other.
and we think about friends whose lives have been cut short by misfortune. and we realize things are not eternal afterall. and that people come and go. some come back in our lives, others never return, even though they may be an email or call away. yet, others, never, ever return.
