Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Re-discovering "L"....

It's funny how life comes full circle sometimes....especially how relationships rekindle by chance encounters. I'm not sure that you can call what "L" and I shared a friendship. He was a lot like the jerk on the movie Flatliners. Infact, when I watched the movie, he was the first person I thought of. I know why he chose me as his target in our high school years. I wasn't easily offended and I didn't fight back. In the years since 1992, I never had an ounce of curiosity regarding what ever happened to him. He was a distant memory...a bad memory to be exact.

But then one day, I was surfing through my current favorite time-suck (facebook)...and I saw him. There he was...the very same face I remember seeing in 1992, but a bit more aged. We began messaging each other, and I was delighted to discover that he had definitely grown up and changed. He wasn't the same jerk who would poke jabs at me at any given moment. We began exchanging messages and the more I learned about him, the more I found myself becoming proud of the person he has become...and I could tell he was proud of me too.

The other day I received an email from him...He said that of all the people in the world, he never thought he'd get back in touch with me...but he's glad that he did. And that if he never told me before, he was sorry for being a jerk in H.S...and that it truly reflected his insecurity back then.
I was floored. Even though 15 years have passed, it was nice to hear he was sorry. And it was shocking to hear that he too was insecure back then. I guess it taught me that insecurity isn't just a girl thing....and even the most confident of people can suffer from it. It also taught me that people grow up and change...and deserve second chances sometimes. I'm glad we have the 2nd chance to become friends as adults since we never gave each other a chance at friendship when we were kids.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is so true! Sometimes, when confronted with a person you've had this awkward relationship with, you are automatically conditioned to interact in that certain way you've always interacted with that person. I'm trying to change this myself.

Your post is a testament to the phrase: its never too late to start over!