Monday, June 14, 2010

bookends

Time it was and what a time it was it was,
A time of innocence a time of confidences.
Long ago it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you.




This past weekend I went to a wedding shower in Westchester county. The couple are friends from college. We were on crew club and I even lived with them for a part of a summer. After college, as it typically happens, you find out that the ties that bound you no longer hold you together. So naturally, we went our separate ways with intermittent smatterings of contact.

I felt some hesitance going. I hadn't seen Chris and Kelly in well over a year, with the only contact being via random facebook messages. In fact, I almost didn't even go. But I did, and I am so very glad I did.

The happiness on Kelly's face seeing me (she didn't know or even expect that I was coming) brought back all these memories and good times we shared during college. I even saw other friends from college that I fell out of touch with as well.

I have always marveled about how people come into our lives and these intense moments of happiness, joy, crisis, and bonding are shared. These people are the molders of the person you eventually become, be it high school friends, college friends, colleagues, boyfriends, etc.

And yet, they leave so easily and effortlessly. Sometimes, you forget about them or even that they exist.

Why is that?

Do people have certain roles in our life and once those purposes are fulfilled they move on and make room for the next batch of individuals?

There is a certain feeling of sadness, nostaglia, and wistfulness when I reconnect with old friends. I love the reminiscing and reconnecting and laughter shared. But it's that feeling after, when I realize that those days are over, that I realize we are not those people anymore we once were. And sometimes that's not a bad thing entirely. We have to grow and grow up.

But it's a thing of beauty when old friends can still be friends.

As the people they are now.

In gratitude to the people they knew then.

Thank you...

1 comment:

  1. They do come and go , but the true friends, the ones you can always count will be there for you, even if you haven't talked to them in ten years. Life separates us physically sometimes, but not emotionally. Sometimes it is circumstance, sometimes you do outgrow each other, but every once in a while you find someone that will always be part of your life regardless of where they are, where you are and how many years lie between visits.

    ReplyDelete