Connecting With an Old Friend

Well not age old, just someone that I can say that has changed my life in a significant way, and known for quite some time now. The initial contact of this person wasn't particularly pleasant - well I wasn't in the mood for the fact that I moved to a new school and all that. So it was completely new friends, and perhaps the daunting fact that I was at that moment going to enroll in late French immersion. I guess this friendship also didn't blossom till later that year when we went to Manning Park for a class trip in the middle of the year. Actually, that's not entirely true we were pretty close by the time we traveled to Manning Park as I would chuck snowballs at her without getting into deep trouble. 

Over the course of the year, that friendship grew. It was clearly defined by my second trip to Manning Park that closely resembled my first trip, however, it wasn't with my grade 6 class but rather with a bunch of other students my age in the district - who just so luckily got elected by our teachers to attend a leadership camp. Somehow she saw potential that I didn't see? 

Over the years doing other programs with her we built a unique bond. An atypical friendship. We knew each other inside out - mostly anyway. After falling out of touch since the three years I've left, you just get that great feeling that you can finally reconnect. I remember visiting her prior to my departure that year. It was on the basketball courts outside of my elementary school building. I said hello and she returns the same remarks and comments on how she has heard from a mutual friend that I was moving. It was one of those bags of mixed emotions. Evidently she was taken by surprise when I first confirmed that it is true and also the fact that it's a dynamic change of scenery compared to Vancouver. The conversation ended with a sad good bye and a hug. 

Getting something back in the post after a postcard I sent a couple weeks back made me smile. Apparently my postcard did the same as she had a busy week. Just like I never left, I could envision her friendly grin from the first days I met her.

Reconnecting is awfully powerful. It just makes you happy for the rest of the day. As much as time has come and gone. A strong relationship that once existed will always revive again given the opportunity.