From Out the Past

Facebook dropped a present in my lap today. Well, not literally. He's several states away, and my lap is hardly the most appropriate place for him. But you get the idea.

You probably have one, too, but I keep a short list of people I'd really love to catch up with but have no hope of ever seeing again. They were absurdly important in some part of my life that doesn't exist anymore. They're the folks whose friends I haven't seen in years, who used to hang out in places that are long gone.

This one was from junior high and high school, another one of the art/science geeks. He was, in fact, one of the infamous Physics Males, although far from the worst. He was also the guy who introduced me to the fact that I'm a very, very scary person. Not that he could explain why I was scary either.

Aside from being mutually terrified of each other, we got on quite well. Then came graduation and poof! He was gone. I saw him a few times after that, but stupidly, I always let some really good excuse get in the way of just sitting down with him for however long it took to properly catch up.

The friends who still connected us to each other drifted away, and more than fifteen years passed without us seeing or talking to each other. I thought about it, but with a name that common, I wouldn't have known how to track him down if I'd tried. My name, of course, had changed, so even if he had been motivated to find me, it would have been tough.

Then, today, he commented on a mutual friend's status update. Fifteen minutes later, we were Facebook friends and exchanging notes (which we never did in high school). All due to nearly passive technology.

I love living in the future.