Of Life, Old Friends, and Facebook

I have the wonderful opportunity to work with a bunch of kids. Most of them are in their early to mid twenties and are in school, either college or seminary (graduate school for people who want to enter into the ministry). Many of them are from other parts of the US and move back to their hometowns or home states upon graduating. Sometimes they leave our store and take ministry positions at churches in the area. I'm always hearing from my co-workers how this person or that person is doing and they found out on Facebook. So, several weeks ago, I took the leap and joined Facebook. I joined mainly to catch up with former employees, but little did I know that I'd also find 4 cousins and scads of friends from school!!

Even though I grew up in a big city, I was fortunate enough to live in the same house for the majority of my growing up years. In fact, my dad still lives in that house. Many of the people I graduated high school with I'd known since 2nd grade. We played softball together or against each other. We were in Girl Scouts together. We swam at the local pool together all summer long. We had sleepovers and birthday parties together. Still others, I'd met and befriended, or at least knew who they were, in middle school, which was 6th-8th grade at the time. So some of the people in my graduating class I went to school with for 7 years. Then there were those who'd gone to a different middle school and I didn't meet until my freshman year in high school, so we only spent 4 years together. Add into all of this the fact that I had an older brother who had a whole group of friends that practically lived at my house, which meant I knew many people in his graduating class as well.

I must confess that while I knew the vast majority of people in my graduating class, I didn't really have a lot of close friends. I only kept in contact with one or two after graduation, but that stopped as soon as life happened. You all know how that goes. I've always wondered how some of the people in my class turned out. Did they grow up? Did they get their acts together? Have they married, divorced, had kids, become productive members of society? Do they still live in our hometown? You know, all those normal things inquiring minds want to know.

Little did I know that when I signed up on Facebook, one of the first questions asked when setting up your profile is the high school you attended and the year you graduated. If you include this information in your profile, you're added to the list of graduates for that particular high school as well as the list for your graduating class. I perused the list for my HS class (TR '84!!) and really didn't find anyone that I was just dying to know how their life had turned out, so I proceeded to find family members and former/current employees. I was quite content with my Facebook experience.

About a week into my life on Facebook, lo and behold, someone from my graduating class sent me a friend request! I was quite shocked and surprised because I didn't really figure anyone would want to know what had happened to me. After all, we hadn't kept in touch over the past 25 years. I recognized this girl's name, thankfully she used her maiden and married names, so I approved her request. Come to find out, she lives about an hour south of me! Soon, I found several people I'd know since elementary school! If you know anything about Facebook, you know that once one person finds you, everybody and their dog will find you. I've been able to reconnect with lots of old friends. Some of them we go way back, all the way back to the playground at the elementary school. It's been so much fun catching up with them and seeing how their lives have turned out. I've also come to realize that I really did care about these people more than I wanted to admit. Now, I'm really hoping we can pull together a 25 year class reunion (yikes!) so that I can hug all these people's necks and talk with them face-to-face. I'd really like to see them in real life, not just chat via inbox messages.

The one thing that really bothers me is a comment made on one of my pics. This was my 4th grade school picture.



He says, "Absolutely cute! That's how I remember you." We then spent the next 6 years together. It disturbs me that he doesn't remember me like this, my senior picture.



Guess I wasn't as "cute" then!! LOL LOL LOL I must admit, I really like that 4th grade picture, especially my hair color. What I wouldn't give for that color now!

(o: