I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I have talked to so many people, young and old, that have expressed that they wished they had kept in touch with old friends. I love talking to an old friend. It is nostalgic and leaves me with a smile on my face. What about you, Reader? Do you keep in touch with old friends or will you end up like Bonnie’s patients?
Life is fast-paced and getting more so each day. We know the culprits for losing touch: people move, get married, have kids, make new friends, move again, people take on new responsibilities, and more. With all of this, who has time to keep current relationships in order — much less spark up conversation with an old friend we haven’t talked to in years.
I lost touch with my elementary school friends by middle school, my middle school friends by high school, and it has been a continuous pattern for years. People change, that is for sure. But the relationships that suffer due to circumstances, those are the ones I want to urge you to fight to keep. A few months ago, I sat down and thought of a few people that I admired growing up. Peers that I used to be good friends with but we’ve grown apart due to various reasons. I thought of a few memories for each of them and sent them personalized messages on Facebook. The responses were great! I have a few people wanting to catch up when schedules work out.
It feels good to message people and see what they are up to and how they are now. I decided as a goal of mine, to message at least one person from my past a week. Rather they were a good friend 8 or 18 years ago. I haven’t even restricted it to good friends. I have messaged people from high school when I have a positive memory of them. I may come off strange, sending a random message of a memory to someone that knows we weren’t best friends, but I try to get the message across that I wanted to share a positive memory with them. Always closing out my message with the sentiment that I hope they are doing well. And I mean that, I hope everyone is doing well. The better everyone else on this planet is doing, the better I am doing.
We are all connected and impact each other. Relationships are the best part about life. My girlfriend and I recently finished traveling in South America for over a year. We saw great places and interesting things but when we think back on our time traveling, we think of all the great people we have met and developed relationships with. We think of the excellent conversations and time shared with a couple named Stan and Sharyl from Cuenca, Ecuador. We think about the people who picked us up for hitchhiking and invited us to have a coffee or lunch with them. We think of our host in Trujillo, Peru named Heiner. His infectious smile with a love for the mountains made him unforgettable. I’ve learned something from each person I’ve encountered. Everyone can learn something from someone else, no matter the age, IQ, etc. There is something to be given and something to be received in each relationship.
With all the technology my generation and all the ones that will follow, there is no reason we cannot keep in touch with people. And posting a status to everyone is not the kind of keeping in touch I mean. I mean a personal message to one person. Letting them know you were thinking about them and how you appreciated them enough to take the time to write a message to them. It may even end up meaning more to the person receiving your random message than it does to you.
In my experience, some may not even answer. That is fine. I know people are busy, I know some do not check messages, or maybe they do not know how to respond to a message I have sent. All fine. I still enjoy taking a trip down memory lane and sharing those memories with people who were actually there. This is a project I’ve been working hard on for a while. I say hard but it has been easy to think of nice memories and share them with people in my life. I’ve had a lot of fun with it and I really recommend you to message your old friends. Or message your old enemies. Maybe things have changed and your old enemy will be your new friend! Happy messaging!
The title of this post was inspired by You’re My Best Friend by Queen.
Drew Droppings 