Recently I have found myself reflecting on why some friendships have such strong ties, ties that time and distance only make stronger. I was reunited with several of my high school classmates this past summer at our 25th class reunion. As we began to interact with each other on Facebook prior to the reunion I could feel the bond we share pulling me closer to each of them. The common thread of growing up in our small hometown seems insignificant to most people who hear about our reunion and the renewed friendships that have come from it. Almost everyone that discovers we have had two more "reunions" in the six months following the first, are shocked.
I see a confused expression come across the faces of those I have told about the bond I share with my classmates. As I experienced this same reaction time after time I began to try and figure out what makes us different. What is it that sets us apart? It isn't the community that we come from because several of us married people from that same community. There are at least three different graduating classes represented by our spouses and they do not share the same kind of bond with the people from their graduating class. My husband's class has had two reunions over the past 28 years. We attended his 10th reunion and he was not interested when the second one came around. My class on the other hand celebrated on the 5th, 10th, 20th, and 25th years following our graduation. We have yet to stop celebrating the 25th anniversary even as we move closer to 26 years separating our common experiences.
It is as if time has stood still when we are together. Our bond has really become stronger than it was when we were hanging out every day in the halls of CHS. We have been apart far longer than we were ever together but that doesn't matter. Our friendships are strong. Our commitment to each other has begun to grow in a way that even we do not understand. We have many more differences than we have similarities but somehow that one common thread holding us together is stronger than all the others combined. So, as we begin to add more threads to the tapestry of our lives I find myself excited to discover the beautiful creation that is being fashioned.
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I could not agree more...
ReplyDeleteThe amazing thing is how continuity over time somehow allows us to pick up without a hitch as if 25 years happened in a vaccuum! Memory is said to dim over time relative to forgetfulness or convenience; but even so its not the memories that are the catalyst. I find that the common thread is reverence and homage for a time held sacrosanct. All those who hold that time dear also are engendered by a familial bond that transcends time.
I am daily buoyed in these troubles times by the minute opportunities to respond to a post on Facebook or read one of Vergil's e-mails or even chase someone down that I have burdened to reconnect with. Its just as then, some 25 plus years ago, when friendship was part of the fiber of growth not just an expected modicum of living. I enjoy the connectivity that being a part of the CHS Class of '84 represents! It somehow feels natural to engage this group as if it is part of the normal daily adventure...
I hope that more people respond to this and open their mind's eye and there hearts to reflect on such a wonderful period of our lives; one that has obviously impacted us individually and collectively!