23 April 2008

Old Connections

It's a strange thing being back in a place you grew up after an absence of fifteen years. There are so many people I've never kept track of who appear in the bookstore. It's disconcerting to run into them at a time where I am not doing what I want to be doing, what I have trained to do, what I have been doing all those years I have been gone. And yet it is interesting to have glimpses into these lives again. Although I grew up in more or less the same place I went to 4 different schools in very different towns and so some of the people I see I haven't seen in a very long time, since kindergarten or fourth grade.

Today while walking the dogs I ran into my middle school Spanish teacher walking her son to school. I ran into a ex-elementary school classmate who is now a married cowgirl. An old physics teacher of mine, who allowed the class to construct a catapult and aim it at the nearest highway, browsed through our literature section. I had lunch at a fine restaurant that turned out to be owned by an ex-high school classmate. Most startling of all was the local cop who had met me in the Small Alaskan Town At A Cross Roads three years ago at a potluck who remembered both my name and our topic of conversation. Just before closing the door opened and, my mind having already dismissed it as impossible, in walked an ex-high school classmate who I had last seen in Alaska. It is interesting to me to note that there are the people you consciously stay in touch with an see frequently because of it, and there are some people who you don't try to stay in touch with but who seem to pop up in your life over and over again.

13 comments:

  1. Neat.

    How paths keep crossing. I always wonder why that is.

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  2. This doesn't tend to happen to me all that often, being thousands of miles away from home and all. But lately (thanks to Facebook) I'm seeing a lot of unexpected connections. The friend from my postdoc lab who now knows an undergrad classmate of mine. The wife of my husband's friend who knows a girl I used to work with. And the recently discovered fact that a fellow ex-pat Brit's cousin went to high school with my husband in Vancouver.

    Small world indeed!

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  3. It can be a strange surreal thing to run into people from your past, they know things about you that you've left behind... oftentimes.

    That can be awkward.
    It can also be fun and pleasant to reminisce.


    Of course, then there's the fun of meeting new friends, too.
    When are we going to have lunch?

    Scarlett & Viaggiatore

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  4. i love that, it makes the world feel smaller somehow.

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  5. I wish I could run into you at a book signing. That would be so cool.

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  6. Hmm...that would be weird! Like CAE, I am very far from where I grew up, so I almost never run into old schoolmates. The last time was 3-4 years ago....

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  7. I didn't keep up with many acquaintances after I left home. I can't imagine what it would be like to move back.

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  8. Hey there - didn't know you were just tagged for the shuffle meme! Now, you've been tagged for the Six Word Meme (see my site).

    Hope things are going well there in wayfaring land!

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  9. because my family has all moved away from the town I grew up in, i very, very rarely run into people from my past accidentally.

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  10. Strange, your post made me realize that I never see people I went to school with. It must be because even in those days we had nothing in common.

    I hope you are well and edging closer to your dreams.

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  11. Just checking in on you, wondering what is happening in your life and wishing you well.

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  12. From me too, echoing the words of hele - are you out wayfaring? Best wishes x

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