So, a week before we left, i was "friended" on Facebook by an old schoolmate, "R". We lost touch for over 20 years and it was great to hear from him. Come to find out, he lives in Dubai and we were able to meet up for a few minutes this evening. He has a lovely family, wife and two adorable sons, the youngest is only a couple weeks younger than "B". After a couple minutes of the initial shyness they interacted well. It was surreal!
SIDE NOTE: We moved around so much that i have a whole different set of "friends" for each phase of life. I have "childhood friends" in Calcutta; childhood and high school friends in Bangalore; school friends also in IL and MO; "career" friends in Hyderabad, Waukegan, Beijing, Guangzhou; friends from my single days; friends from my married days; friends from my parenthood days...the list goes on and on... Due to such a "restless" lifestyle, i lost touch with folks once i moved to a different chapter of life - very few friends have "carried over" into these different phases. Of course, with the introduction of the internet, it's been much easier to keep in touch, which only happened after i was in college. Facebook has been wonderful for reconnecting me with so many people that i've sadly lost touch with.
I've known "R" since we were 10, went to the same school and church, so we basically spent most of the week together. To watch our kids play with each other was something i never thought i'd experience. Except for one guy, Joe, i do not regularly see folks that i've known since childhood. And Joe just had a baby girl a few months back, so our kids haven't had the chance to play together. But how cool is it to be friends with someone since you were a kid and then see your kids play together. "R"s kids and my kids might never become lifelong friends, but for that moment, it was awesome to see them play together.
"R" and I had been out of touch for so long, i wasn't sure how things would be...were we still friends or acquaintances? Would he remember our friendship the way i remembered it - with great fondness. He was one of my best chums and i hoped he still felt that way about me. The minute we said hi, it was like picking up after summer break (not 20+ years). I love those kind of friendships, the kind where time stands still when you're apart. Of course, we had other variables like our families, but it only added to the beauty of our friendship. It wasn't weird at all! We were one big happy group walking and talking and trying to mind our kids. I've missed our friendship, but now that we've reconnected, i can't wait for it to continue.
