I’ve been spending some time tonight poking around on Facebook and Myspace, looking at the profiles and pictures of old friends from high school. I just keep thinking about how the past decade has changed many of us, and how some parts of our personalities really seem to be the same.
I look at one couple who has been together since before even high school began, and I am amazed at how they knew so early on that they would be a family. Now, two kids later, they are still together and still seem to be deeply in love.
I look at one friend who seems to have just grown into an older version of himself. He is a little more restrained, but looking at pictures of him now, he seems to have the same little jewels of personality that drew me to be his friend back then.
I look at one friend who has gone in a completely different direction than I expected him to. I am amazed, impressed, and surprised with where life has taken him, but I also look at pictures of him with his family and realize that he is definitely the same person that he was back in high school (and middle school, and elementary school).
I look at one friend who has really come out of her shell since high school, and when I look at her now, she seems to be very different than she was back then. But when we talk, I realize that she has the same insecurities and hopes that she did then, too.
I look at one friend whose life has really changed since high school, and who has taken a winding path to where she is now. But when we talk, I realize that the path has landed her both closer to where mine has taken me, and farther away as well.
I don’t keep in close contact with many friends from high school. I don’t really regret that I won’t be going to my high school reunion in a couple of weeks (after all, I will be going to see the Punch Brothers with Ryan, and that will be a blast!). But I do still wonder, sometimes, whether the people who used to make up my world when I was a decade younger could still fit into the world I inhabit now. And I kind of wish they would.