Reminiscing...

I’ve been talking to quite a few old friends in the past couple of weeks thanks to resources like facebook.com and myspace.com. I have to say that life has passed by in a blink. It’s funny how you pick up with old friends right where you left off. It doesn’t seem to matter that 7 years has passed by! Seven years is a lot of life to just skip over. It got me thinking because one of the friends I was talking to the other day was telling me he had been through a lot more than he had told me in the brief time we talked. I got to thinking, oh yeah, seven years!!

I think we all have been through some things in the past 7 years. Anyways, I started remembering the good ol high school days and reflecting on what had occurred since then. It’s not uncommon to find people I knew quite intimately 7 years ago to have gotten married and have a few kids. Imagine that. Wow. How come time went so slow from 0 – 18 years of life but I just blinked over the past 7 years. There are still a few old friends that I wish I knew where they were. I google them, but to my surprise and the surprise is genuine, I find nothing resulted. How can they avoid the google gods?? Granted, most people don’t have a unique name such as mine, so you have several pages to click through to try and result in something. I joined some random sound forum last night to get a look at someone’s profile that was posting and maybe determine if this person was an old friend or not. Technology is making this world smaller, but I guess it hasn’t made it small enough.

Speaking of picking up with friends where you left off. I find this a good practice to have. Not only does it increases your memory capabilities because you have to think about the person and what is going on with them, but you seem like a better friend because you can follow up next time you meet. It makes it seem like you were thinking about them…imagine that. I’m pretty good about this. I can usually remember the last thing I did with someone and what they were going through so I know exactly what to say, but back in reference to old, old friends this practice becomes a joke. I mean, can you really pick up with someone where you left off after 7 years has passed. “So how is your mom doing? Is she still in the hospital?” Imagine that reponse. Or how about “Did you get accepted to A&M?” hahahaha…it just doesn’t seem to fit. You normally can do one of 2 things. You can re-evaluate this person and by that I mean get to know this person all over because you could be dealing with a new person if the last time you talked to them was when you were 18. The years of 18 – 25 unfold the character you are likely to assume the rest of your life and that can be quite different than who you were. I know in the past 2 years even I have changed quite a bit. The second thing you can do is to just talk about the past and refuse to evaluate the present and leave it for what it is. If you want to maintain the relationship then I suggest you reintroduce yourself and deal with the past only after a new relationship has developed or when you feel like a new one will not develop. That is by no means a black/white guide to reestablishing new relationships with old friends. That has just been an observation of mine.

God gave me an amazing memory and because of that I spend a lot of time in thought. I like to think about how I could have changed things or maybe I analyze something that had occurred and put new variables in it, like what so and so was doing while this occurred. I find that kind of fun. You should try it. I mean the sun doesn’t wait to rise when you wake up. So whether 24 hours has passed or 7 years, it is highly possible to witness other people’s lives other than your own.