On Rediscovering Old Friends

Currently Listening
Common - I Used to Love H.E.R.

Wow. This is amazing. Everything bad I've ever said about Facebook I take back right now.

I only moved to Bloomfield Hills the summer before seventh grade, and before that I had a whole different life in Saline. Before then I rolled with the nerdy folk in Saline at school.
Back in sixth grade in Saline I had Mr. Wholehan, a great social studies teacher. I was into trading cards of all sorts, (Magic, Star Wars, Pokemon) and we all hung out at David Pelletier (the ultra nerd)'s house all the time.

Back before people knew what computer security was we got in trouble for "hacking" the school computers, which in reality was just stumbling across the administrator password, and then disabling the internet filter. I still remember the password was "maple."

But at home in my neighborhood I hung out with other kids. We would ride our bikes all over the place and explore the farms that surrounded our little patch of neighborhood. In my backyard we would play soccer and pick grapes, and then go exploring into my neighbor's raspberry patch. His name was Andrew, and he had a tree fort. An AMAZING tree fort with multiple stories and balconies and incredibly elaborate and well furnished.

But my best friend from then was Jake. He was a year younger than me, and he lived accross the court from me. The summer's were amazing. He had a pool in the backyard and a Sega and an air hockey table inside.

Rediscovering old friends and childhood memories, even if that childhood is only 8 years away instead of 40 is still always an emotional experience. It reminds me of times that have already passed, times that I didn't think would end but did. Especially now as we all perch on the edge of transition from high school to college, as our classes and friends scatter across the country. In 4 years all will be forgotten, these days moved to the back of our minds and remembered with a hint of nostalgia through the hazy lens of time. And then just like that college will be gone too. Life moves on, and time stops for nothing. But nostalgia shouldn't stop us from enjoying the present. It's nearly impossible to compare past happiness to present happiness, because happiness is an emotion, and like all emotions lives strictly in the present tense.

I lost the thread of this post some time ago, but I think that for most old friendships it is probably just best to let them die, because it takes a considerable amount of effort to salvage them. A reuniting is always awkward because it's nearly impossible to catch up in a few short conversations on years of separation. People change over that time.

Of my old friends, only two are still in Saline, the rest have moved on, some graduating early, others moving as far away as Texas and California. Too bad, they were good times.

Great song by the way. Listen to it twice, and pay real close attention to the lyrics.