Thanks to Facebook I spent about an hour last night reading through my yearbook from senior year in high school. Let me explain.

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow during the last few months I reconnected with a guy from my high school graduating class.  Perhaps it was in the “People You May Know Section.”  He was my second high school connection.  The first was a girl (I use the term generically, because we graduated 26 years ago, so “girl” is more a state of mind than of age) I truly don’t remember.  She lives near me and found me on the site.  Anyway, becoming Facebook Friends with Paul has cracked the door to reconnecting with others from the Middletown High School Class of ’82.

This week I got a message from someone who was a good friend way back then.  We exchanged e-mails giving nutshell versions of the last 26 years.  (Trust me–it was a nutshell—if you’ve been reading this, you know it took me nine lengthy e-mails to describe one crisis!)  I’ve loved hearing about her life and reconnecting with her. This revived friendship got me thinking about other friends, and that led to pulling my “Epilogue 82” off the bookshelf.  As I flipped through it, the following thoughts struck me:
– I could put some names to faces immediately; others escaped me till I found them somewhere else.
– All the group and club photos were taken the same day; it looks like I wore one outfit to school most of the time!
– Most of what people write in yearbooks was fairly trite.  Though I did learn that the majority of my high school world described me as “sweet.”  It could’ve been worse.
– So many of my good friends ended their writing with something along the lines of, “We’d better stay in touch” or “If you don’t write to me, I’m going to hunt you down” or “Let’s make sure we see each other on vacations.”  We obviously didn’t do those things for very long.  Really, before Facebook, I haven’t been in touch with any of my school friends since my junior or senior year in college.  Youth group friends?  Yes, but not much.

Were our sentiments insincere?  I don’t think so.  I believe we were just ignorant of how much bigger the world was and how much actually living with people apart from our families would drive friendships to a deeper level.  I often thought that the kids’ friendships at boarding school in Cote d’Ivoire were much more like my college friendships than my high school ones.  Perhaps it was the living situation; perhaps it was the bigger worldview.

I’m glad Facebook is allowing me to renew the intention of living out some of those sentiments.  I’m glad to have Lori back in my life—even if it is only via e-mail at this point.  It’s good to connect and reconnect.

photo courtesy of Corey Harris