Le Memory Lane

a happy gathering by artist Marisa Haedike. Source


My past caught up with me this week in three independent incidents.

On Monday I was woken up by a call from an old family friend I haven't seen in 11 years. Our parents used to work together and he has known me since I was a baby. We went out to lunch where he told me stories about my parents, and then he took me home with home with him to Queens to meet his children. He told his eight year old daughter that for him, I too would always be eight years old. Looking at him was like looking at my childhood.

On Wednesday, I e-stalked my best friend from sixth grade. I not only found her, but she happens to be living right outside NYC. Not only that, but she was in Paris for a year while I was in Paris, only we had lost touch by then. I haven't seen her in almost 16 years and we made plans to see each other soon. I can't wait to see how she's grown up.

Thanks to Facebook, I found three people from my high school class (and the class before me) in New York. We met up for coffee last night and it was fun to see how one of them have changed while the others still retained the person they were when I knew them. There is something about meeting your old high school friends as adults. In school, everyone is so stuck in their cliques and images. But once you see each other in the real world, none of that matters and you find a connection with people who you thought you would never even see again.

Pieces of my life scattered over various countries are coming together here in New York. I don't know if I knew those people for a reason, and that reason is going to reveal itself in some sort of second coming experience at some point, or it's just because New York is one of those places that draws people from all over the place. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Until then, I am going to enjoy the city with my new old friends.