Old Friends

It is strange seeing people from my past. I only live 10 minutes from where I grew up but I could really be hundreds of miles away. Penn State is such a self contained environment that I really don’t see fellow Bellefusions much. And any time I do run into someone I knew from high school we talk about two things:

1) Who is getting married and
2) Who had a baby

We may start out with the niceties but eventually it moves to this line of questioning. It’s funny actually and every time I run into someone new I hear about a person I haven’t even thought of in four years.

This line of questioning will probably continue for the rest of my life. Except now besides running into people from high school I will be also running into people from college. I can see myself in twenty years standing in line at the grocery store talking to someone from my past about who is getting a divorce and who is having grandchildren.

It also seems that as I come close to the end of my college career I am becoming reacquainted with old friends. I went out to dinner with a very old friend last night. The same guy I mentioned before who is getting married. It is the first time I have really talked to him in about three years. Its sad really, we used to be really, really close. We would walk home together and hang out after school. I used to go over to his house and use his computer all the time to type papers. His mom would usually offer me dinner. She made the BEST lasagna. Sometimes if she knew I was coming I think she planed ahead to make it. It was great. He in turn was also very close to my mom. He called her Grammy P. I’m not really sure where that came from but whatever. My mom loved him and thought of him as an extension of the family. Her tall son. He is one of those friends that I miss the most from my childhood. We have a lot of history together. The sad part is that last night could have been the last time we ever hang out together.

He is not the only one of my old friends that suddenly has come back into my life. Another friend who I have known for years just moved back into the area. We also used to be very close. She and I saw each other through some tough spots in our adolescence. I even watched her little brother grow up. He is now a freshman in college. Scary. I have hope of seeing her more frequently then the previously mentioned guy. She is better at returning phone calls. That’s woman for ya. I lost touch with her once I really don’t want to again.

It is odd becoming reacquainted now because I know that we are all heading into the real world shortly. Things are changing so quickly the next thing you know it will be our 20th class reunion and it will be the first time I have seen these people in fifteen years. What a sad thought. But we all know how life takes us all in different paths; that is part of growing up. But, I guess you can never completely let go of where you came from.