Old Friends

From time to time my mind wanders back to the people I shared what seems like a previous life with. You go to school with people, you see them day after day and then graduation comes and its all over. Everyone goes their separate ways. Now, you decide who means something to you, who you stay in touch with and who you just let go of. I didn't hang on to many friends from then. I moved on and met new people and all those school years seem like a previous life.

This past week I have reconnected with 2 people from that life. Julian got his pictures back from his soccer team. I saw the last name of a little boy and it made me wonder about a guy I went to school with. Such an odd last name, could it be his son? I looked him up on myspace and there he was. We exchanged a few emails, caught up and were both genuinely happy to reconnect. We met in the 3rd grade and graduated together. We had seen and shared so much of the same life, yet graduation day sent us in opposite directions. Oh, and it wasn't his son, but nice to reconnect anyway.

Tonight I put off going to the store for as long as possible. I ended up taking Julian with me, wandering through the store trying to pull from my memory what we needed. Hamburger buns, yes, I will get those .. but Julian reminds me that we need candy for the gingerbread house and heads down that aisle and then I remember we need butter to make the frosting so we head for the butter and there, in front of the butter, is a guy I went to school with from 7th -12th grade. We look at each other, recogonize each other at the same time and say each others names. 15 years have passed since we last saw each other, but the connection was instant. Friends. Distant, long lost Friends, reconnected because of a detour from the hamburger buns.