Do you look forward to connecting with friends from childhood?
This weekend I met an old friend from highschool who I hadn’t seen in, are you ready? Over 20 years! We had planned the encounter a few weeks ago. When we met and sat down we shared how we both feared we might have a moment of weirdness but, none of that. We spoke for almost 3 hours, non-stop.
During our conversation, she reminded me that she once had been awarded a prize for being the most friendly newcomer at our school. She still has the same ability to easily connect with everyone around her. Mariangie is down to earth and so genuine, she is fun and smart and has a sharp sense of humor!
In her book Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown talks about the concept of belonging. While some argue that we belong to one place, Brown challenges this idea by walking us through the importance of connecting with others, which can leads us to understand that we don’t belong to one place, or one tribe, or one community, but everywhere.
Spending time with Mariangie and her family felt like going back in time, the memories of our years together at school and remembering our good old friends from back home was so refreshing. It would have been okay if it would’ve taken us a minute to “reconnect,” instead, we dove right in.
Instead of feeling like our lives were so different, it felt like we were just the same two teenagers chatting about everything, from our families and children, to our newest projects, and the things that really matter in life.
How is it that sometimes one can easily connect with those who have known us from years? Certainly those who know us like that know ALL about us; the bright moments, but also our flaws, our moments of weakness, and moments when we’ve failed.
I guess I can admit that I seldom feel that type of connection with people who I’ve met recently, parents who I see often at school, people who I’ve met through my work, for example.
Can I honestly say that I reach out and connect to those newer faces around me? Maybe the answer is a maybe, or sometimes, defintely: not often enough.
Bonds from school are special. This is specially true when you go to school with someone from kindergarten until Senior year, which it’s the case growing up in Puerto Rico or at times in private school in the US. Thirteen years sharing, creating bonds from early childhood to teenager to early adulthood, it’s a long time of sharing different stages in Life. So much nostalgia and history would always accompany that relationship with memories and lessons learned while growing up.