Random: Blogging & Summers

Okay... so last week, I had this nice little post going that wasn't even getting too long. Then I realized it wasn't in the font I wanted, highlighted the whole thing to change it, it did an automatic save... and I lost all of it. This, unfortunately, was all it took to make me mad enough not to write it again for a while.

Moving on...

I was writing about "One Very Long Summer". It mainly conveyed how, growing up, I went to school with many of the same people. (Some would move in and out of our lives, some repeatedly, but the changes usually seemed pretty gradual.) During the summer, we wouldn't see each other much (unless we were close friends or there was a pool party), but we'd come back in August ready to see what all had happened during the summer months.

I'm a bit of an introvert. Some people don't know this about me. I didn't even know it until after I finished college... I think. It's always been hard for me to just go up and talk to people I don't know... or even people I do know, if I don't know them really well! I hope that my introversion didn't come across as snobbery in school, but I fear that in many circumstances, it probably did.

ANYWAY... what I was getting at with the introversion thing is that even I, introvert though I was, even I looked forward to seeing everyone after a summer. And now, as we are coming upon our 10-year reunion next year, I keep thinking about how those years have kinda felt like a really long summer to me. I've seen many friends I graduated with here and there over the years, just as I did during those summer months growing up. I've spent time with those who I was closest with, growing those friendships even more in so many ways. But I still can't believe how fast the time has flown. High school doesn't feel like it's almost 10 years in my past... it feels like it was just yesterday.

And, having been around the same people for so many years, I am always excited to see and hear about what's going on with them now. Facebook has been great for that (even though I usually just watch statuses... never know what to say in a comment). Not everyone will make it to the reunion, I know, I may not even make it, but... I wish I could express the connection I feel to the classmates I grew up with. Even though I haven't seen many of them since the night we graduated, I feel like it was a few months ago (like a summer), and I still care about them just as much. Maybe that's the way it will always be. How can you just blot out the first 18+/- years of your life? Each person that I knew even just a little, influenced my life in one way or another in who I became. There are so many I admire, so many I've been cheering for... so many we will all miss. But, if any of you are reading this, know that even though I may not know what to say, you are still a part of my life and I think about you often.