I had lunch with an old friend today.
This morning I got a phone call saying, "Hi, guess who." It turned out to be my best friend from high school. We were inseparable in those days. In fact, we were so inseparable that I talked her into going to college with me. She only lasted the first semester.
I don't really remember the drifting apart. I think that as I continued with college and life, we just went our separate ways. In all the years that have passed, we've never really connected again. I send a Christmas letter most years, and we've attended a couple of reunions, but we've never really had a chance to sit down and talk.
Today we had lunch. It was a bit surreal. The girl that Julie knew isn't really the person I am today, and yet in some ways she knows more about me than anyone I know now.
Julie knew every boy I had a crush on. She knew the issues I had with my parents, and she knew every time that I lied to them. She knows enough dirt to prevent me from ever having a career in politics. However, my secrets were always safe with her.
When she pulled up on her Harley and I in my minivan, she said, "I figured you would be a minivan sort of gal."
We don't have much in common anymore except our history. It was easy to connect again and tell lots of "remember when" stories. As tightly as we bonded for several years, looking back, it seems we were destined to walk different paths.
Even though we don't really know each other now, I will always love the girl that was my very best friend during the most tumultuous years of my life.
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I can relate.
A few days ago I had the chance to spend some times with several of my closest friends from high school, all of whom I haven't seen/spoke to in at least two years. One just had her second child and we were having a baby shower/gathering of sorts.
There was a group of 8 of us who were closest friends in high school, and we have tried to get together once a year, but you know how it goes, if you miss one then it's 2 years gone by...
It's so interesting to me how even though it's been *many* years since high school and all our lives have been so different, when we gather there is still so much connection...and it's so nice that we can have that but we have all well outgrown the teenage social drama and we can just be happy to be together.
We've had marriages and divorces and babies and losses of parents and movings overseas...and while I can't say "we've gone through it all together", there is a relationship there, an understanding that we will always be there for each other on some deep level...we will always have something special because of the bonds we formed in our teenage years. Even though I don't have a part of their everyday lives, and as such don't really *know* them either - there is a *knowing* that never fades away.
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