This week has been a whirl wind of getting back in touch with old friends from a long time ago. A friend from middle school called out of the blue saying that she got my number from a class reunion for our middle school in Taiwan. It took a couple of phone tags for us to finally talk on the phone. It was strange listening to a mature voice and trying to match that to the image I had in my head when she was 15 or 16. But it didn’t take long for us to fall back to the time when we were both innocent and remembering the special things we did together. Wow!
I always think I am a loner. I don’t like to be part of a big club or a member of a famous group. I’d rather hang out with one or two friends knowing that I don’t have to put on a different face or say things I don’t mean. And I’m ok with that. This phone call though has suddenly changed everything. I am a member of a group, a group that I belong to not by choice but by chance. And we went through 3 years of intensive studying and learning together. We were all so innocent and ready for life.
She went through some hardships as she grew up. I can hear the sadness that was brought out by this class reunion. She didn’t have time to feel when she was young as she was striving to make a living for her and her family, but this reunion suddenly threw her back to the beginning of her struggling years. She said she was crying the next morning when she got up. It also made me sad. I told her she was mourning for that innocent girl. I am too. The time between that girl and the woman I am now is too much to absorb all at once.
Life has treated us well at this stage of our lives. But we went through some hard times either by our own fault or by circumstances. Sitting at 50s and looking back at 15 is a mind boggling thing to do.
I also got an email from another old friend back in Taiwan since then. All of a sudden, I have two new old friends in my life. It kind of makes me feel good cause I do have friends near and far. Now that our parents are old and feeble, our kids are grown, is it the reason we appreciate getting connected again with our childhood friends? Is it a way for us to finally connect all the dots together and make it complete? I don’t know. But it sure feels weirdly good.