Photosource: Sunshine September 2006
At five you want to be big enough to dominate the jungle gym; time went by very slowly…
At fifteen you’ll be happy enough to dominate your body and mind; time just seems to stop and freeze frame…
At twenty-five you want to dominate time when you realise that there just isn't enough of it to do it all…
Have you ever felt the power of time travel? You hear that one song that takes you back to a moment fresh in your mind, so fresh you can practically touch, taste and smell the atmosphere around you…
You find yourself emotional, unstable, unsure of whether to feel what you felt then or to choose a new emotion…
Pure Emotion.
I registered on facebook.com and discovered old friends that I hadn’t spoken to in years… and face after face, name after name… it all came rushing back to me.
I felt five again as I looked for my cellphone and shifted weight from my toes to my heel and back again from the impatience suffered waiting for the other person to answer:
“Go register on facebook!” It was about the most intelligent sentence I could say.
And although my boyfriend watched me as if I'd lost all my marbles… the person on the other line knew exactly what I was feeling.
Old friends… the ones you make in Primary school. The ones that sang in the choir with you; played with you during breaks and can sing your old school anthem with you.
The ones that can literally sing back the words to the songs you knew.
The ones that know about the time you put the drawing pin under Mrs. Bolton’s chair, the ones that know the nicknames Mrs. Du Plooy gave us and the ones that still remember Mr Esterheizen´s wooden ruler and Mrs DuPlessis crooked fingers on overhead projector…
Friendship… it knows no time, no boundaries, no distance. It's like two ships that know that they'll see each other sooner or later at an unknown port.
People grow, people change and yet the friendship survives… even the weaker ones, the ones you weren’t even sure that they were your friends at all.
All it takes is that connection, that signature of someone who was witness to a moment in your life.
High school, some call it a nightmare, others call it the best years of your life… whatever you call it, it shapes you, defines you… allows your to choose the foundations of the person you want to be.
That person will change… the foundations will stay.
To reconnect with someone you knew back then is like looking at an old photograph that forces you to reflect on the things that changed you to the person you are today.
At first you see each other as you were seven years ago and then you search your brain for the words to explain that you're a different person than the one they remember…
Different, but still the same…
Sometimes you need to look back, remember who you were to understand who you are. It's in the least… emotional. I learnt from smoked mirrors not to dwell on the past, but I know it's a part of who I am. It's how you look at it that makes all the difference.
Interiorize the lessons learnt; keep the moments that made you smile and let go of all the rest…
I feel blessed, lucky to feel that connection and happy with the person I've turned out to be.
2 comments:
Well, I still remember things that happened when I was 4, 5, and so on. The things i would say i've think about it, will be equal to everyone else, when we are kids we want to have fun, later we want to grow faster, be legally major, enjoy life. At a certain point we wish that we could be back in time, without the responsabilities, the worries, the social commitment that sometimes we found ourselves into. But as long we're in a clean conscience (or as much as we can be) the past will be a thing to remember, either to not repeat mistakes or just to be nostalgic and smile (or not).
As for reasons to think about the past, as long you're not stuck in it, every reason is good, even the bad moments. And since you brought the matter of photos, i've seen photos of yours, and in person as well, of various hair colors, it's a matter of mood now, but when the grey one come to top, what will you do, or think? :) I've already have quite a few, and I'm not ashamed, somehow I think as cool touch, but sometimes, it does make think of the past
Geees, you gave my the goose pumps when you called me to say those very words "Go register on facebook" I just coundn't believe what I was hearing... I recall that very night flying back in time, there I was during break with all my school friends, in the choir, laughing my head off in class, what else can I say... Those where the best days of my life, and you my dear friend you have a special corner in my heart since the first day I met you in grade one, Mrs. Weeda our teacher, we owe her alot, hein? May she rest in peace!!
It's hard to believe that 13 years have gone by, and yet it feels as if it was yesterday that I left all my friends behind to embrace a new life in Portugal.
May God bless all my school friends...
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