Reconnecting with friends

I still remember a lot of my childhood. Times as far back as when I was three. One part that still stands in my book as important was my friends and the times I had with them. Stephanie I met when I first moved to Santa Cruz (I was 4). We went to preschool together and conditioned all the way through high school together. Crystal I met in 3rd grade and same story with her as Steph. Sarah I became great friends with starting in high school because of running and she was already good friends with Steph and Crystal. The four of us are still good friends, but are feeling the effects of what life post HS brings. College in different towns or states, marriage or even starting a new family. We try to stay in touch as much as we can, but its hard. These are the friendships that endured because they had the opportunity.

What about the other friends? Most often times them moving away changed things. We didn't get the chance to cultivate a relationship as we got older.

Danielle. Dear sweet girl. I miss her and think of her fairly often. I still get tears in my eyes when I think too much about her. She didn't get the chance to live a life of her own, it was taken from her at the age of 9 from ovarian cancer. I remember her getting sick and was pulled out of school for a while so she could get better. They didn't know what she had for a while and after they did, it was hard to understand how it could have been. I was expecting her to come back to school at anytime, but got the dreaded and unexpected call saying she was gone.

Friends like Jodee and Shelby both moved away back in elementary. Both friends I loved getting to hang out with and missed very much when they were no longer around. I didn't know it until after Jodee moved away that she was gone. And when Shelby left I knew she was going, but didn't understand too much what her leaving would mean. Over the years I had thought of them both and missed the friendship that was no more.

Thanks to this thing we call the internet, we can connect with friends all over the world; we can keep in touch and reconnect with those we had been out of touch for so long. When I found my two "long lost" friends again I got to fill in some of those details that were blank for so long. I had no idea before where Jodee went and now I have gotten to see it. I knew where Shelby went, but I got to see that she stayed there. Both friends I have gotten to follow the little details that they have posted and pictures they put up, getting to see some of their past and now the current. Who they became and how/why.

My heart is filled with great joy to be able to get to know them now, from this point. I am so excited about this. Though we are still living no where near each other, we have a chance again to restart now, something new.