Recently my televisual viewing pleasure has been interrupted by a spate of adverts for things like Friends Reunited, Facebook bla bla bla. Meet up with people you haven’t seen in ages! What is so-and-so up to now? Did they ever marry the super hunk from Form 4b? Everywhere you look, we’re being pushed to reconnect with our past. Let people know how we’re doing. Let them judge us on what we’ve achieved. Talk to people. Whether we want to or not.
It got me thinking about lost friends. Once they’re gone, is it a good idea to try and renew the friendship or do you just let things go?
I have an old friend, T (old as in the length of time I’ve known her, not age). She and I were inseparable. We went to the same school for about four years. She lived with us for about three. We were like sisters. And then, aged 8, we were separated. Different schools. Different friends. Different lives.
I haven’t heard from T in about 7 years. We met up once, while I was at Uni. It was odd. I always thought we had the kind of friendship in which, no matter how long it had been since we last saw each other, we would fall back into the old routine. It didn’t. We both had new lives. I was busy getting drunk at University. She was busy being friends with a certain Royal and going to fabulous parties at the palace. I was getting on with my “solid drinking degree”. She was reading History of Art. Probably.
Her brother died not so long ago. I thought about getting in touch but didn’t. Would it seem contrived? Would it seem like I was just getting in touch because I felt I should, not because I cared?
And so now, many years later, I think about her again. Will we ever be friends again? If I got married, would I invite her? Would she come? Would she care? What’s she doing? Who’s she with? Should I just let the friendship go?
I open up my email and write a quick note, addressing it to an email address from long ago, unsure whether it’s the right one or whether the subject will welcome the intrusion into her new life. It pings away into cyberspace.
I think it’s time to try and reunite.
