Recycled Friends
I have a very strange sense of time's passing. That is to say I am quite ignorant of it. I think I get that from my father. He is 74 but says he feels, mentally, like he is in his 20s and is always surprised by the old guy in the mirror.
Because of that I sometimes get to thinking about people I used to know that I drifted from. I forget how much time has passed by and as it's gotten to the point where I make maybe one new friend every year or so, I get wistful for the ones that got away. And these new friends are definitely friend-lites. That is to say, I'm in my 30s and do not go through the angst that I went through with older friends so they can never be as intense a relationship.
So, last year, I had a great experiment and I contacted about 25 people that I used to know and have not spoken to since before email! I used the white pages and Google and wrote them handwritten notes. A few ignored me or never got my note, but the majority contacted me and some I email with and it was kind of a curiousity that ended as quickly as it began. But two people who I had not seen since or spoken to since at least 1990 both responded positively and the funny thing is the 3 of us were friends once and hung together then we all just drifted. And here's the rub: we all either lived or worked within a 1 mile radius of one another! Isn't that weird? All in the same orbit for years and never crossing paths. I'm so happy about that because seeing them it's as if time stood still and we all seemed to have progressed at the same rate. I love those girls and I'm so happy they are in my life again. I honestly think that was one of my top achievements of 2005, that along with finding (after 18 months of hell) my dream house and renovating it to it's 1910 glory.
So, if you ever wonder how an old friend is doing, track 'em down! The worst thing that can happen is they will not get back to you.
Because of that I sometimes get to thinking about people I used to know that I drifted from. I forget how much time has passed by and as it's gotten to the point where I make maybe one new friend every year or so, I get wistful for the ones that got away. And these new friends are definitely friend-lites. That is to say, I'm in my 30s and do not go through the angst that I went through with older friends so they can never be as intense a relationship.
So, last year, I had a great experiment and I contacted about 25 people that I used to know and have not spoken to since before email! I used the white pages and Google and wrote them handwritten notes. A few ignored me or never got my note, but the majority contacted me and some I email with and it was kind of a curiousity that ended as quickly as it began. But two people who I had not seen since or spoken to since at least 1990 both responded positively and the funny thing is the 3 of us were friends once and hung together then we all just drifted. And here's the rub: we all either lived or worked within a 1 mile radius of one another! Isn't that weird? All in the same orbit for years and never crossing paths. I'm so happy about that because seeing them it's as if time stood still and we all seemed to have progressed at the same rate. I love those girls and I'm so happy they are in my life again. I honestly think that was one of my top achievements of 2005, that along with finding (after 18 months of hell) my dream house and renovating it to it's 1910 glory.
So, if you ever wonder how an old friend is doing, track 'em down! The worst thing that can happen is they will not get back to you.
posted by Bart at 11:56 PM
1 Comments:
OMG, Bart! I loved that story. I am so glad for you and your reconnection to your past friends and also, your house renovation too! I love old houses, there can be so much richness and character found in them, and such interesting history to them also!
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