Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Childhood Friends



When I was in Secondary School (or High School over here), age eleven to eighteen, I had two best friends. Everyone else had one best friend, but we were a threesome. We would hang out together at school all day, then get home and spend the rest of the evening on the telephone to one other. At the time, I am sure we thought these were life and death discussions, but the reality is, that we mainly talked about boys, our latest crushes and rejections, the general state of our lack of love lives...you know. I still wonder how on earth our parents put up with it all.

Somehow, even though we were so close for so long we lost touch. Rhianon went overseas teaching English for a number of years and I married an American and left the country. We did not have e-mail addresses and over the years, even though I had searched online for them both, I could never find them. Then, out of the blue, a couple of months back, I got an e-mail from Rhianon. A mutual friend who I had re-connected with via Facebook had kept in touch with her and gave her my details. After more than twelve years of no contact whatsoever, we had been reunited!

We have been e-mailing back and forth since then and there was no question, I had to get to see them (Rhianon had kept in touch with Claire) whilst I was back in England. It was so fun for the three of us to get to meet up and realise that we have not changed much at all. We all look exactly the same and even Claire's mannerisms have remained a constant over the years. It was bizarre and completely normal to sit there chatting and catching up on the years.

I have always said that a sign of true friendship is the ability to be able to pick up again where you left off. It does not matter whether it was an hour ago that you left each other at school, or a week, or a year, or five or ten or more. There is something that connects you, that reaches past time and distance. It is not just shared experiences, or similar positions in life, there really are kindred spirits.


The three of us again: Claire, Me, Rhianon

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