I’ve been thinking.   I know!  I know … my brain will start to fry if I try and think too hard.  But really .. it’s a day of contemplation as I watch my parents fly off to Seattle and leave the son and I here … alone … again.  I’m nostalgic.  I’m homesick … though I’m at home.   It is a day where I miss Jim  … and that always makes me think.   Perhaps too much, as my son likes to remind me.  “Mom, you think too much.  That’s your problem.”

My younger sisters best friend in high school has become a talented writer – and posted an article about Facebook last week.  {Please Login or Register to see the link.}  And while it’s technically about how the Gay and Lesbian community has taken over Facebook – she made a few great points.   I’m not as brilliant a writer as Winnie is .. but I’ll try my best to elaborate on some of the points made.  Well .. perhaps expand on just the one point.

… But the ease with which people from your past can easily find you on Facebook gives folks you went to high school with (and instantly forgot once you left that wicked little town) the ability to finally reconnect with you …

Why do we as adults … some 20 years out of High School … flock to Face Book and other social networking sites in an effort to reconnect with our old High School Chums?  Are we making an effort to recapture our youth?  Has our own mortality set in, and are we grasping for that one connection to a simpler life?  A time when our biggest worry was what to wear to class so as to best fit in { or hide as was my case}.   I don’t know about you – but I’ve spent the past twenty some years trying TO FORGET the misery of High School!

So why is it so important to make an effort to find these old high school friends and reconnect?  What lures us in to the wonderful world of Facebook and makes us so eager to leave snarky comments on our Classmates Status Updates?

Oh … I have my own theories on this.  Those Life Coaching classes weren’t for nothing, you know.  But I still question my own motives for seeking out old friends.  HECK … I will admit to Googgling the names of three very specific people over and over again in an effort to find them {to no avail}.  Why?

I’m not sure I should post my reasons why … it would make me appear all too human to those who believe I have some super human strength to cope with life.   I’ll chalk my stroll down memory lane to missing Jim.  To feeling an important part of someone else life.  To being needed and loved.  To COUNT.   I’m feeling invisible more often these days and so utterly alone.

What do I hope to gain if I ever find these three important people?  Well … I just hope to find them doing well in life.  To know that they are happy with the path they’ve chosen for themselves and are thriving in life.  To see them living their life to the fullest.  I want to see if they’ve survived this crazy world.

I’m a story collector too.  I have been browsing my old classmates Facebook profiles to try and piece together their stories of life.   There’s only so many questions you can ask your friends once you’ve reconnected.  You don’t want to get too very personal – knowing the details of their life.

People are private – and you just don’t spill your guts out to people you’ve just met – regardless of how close you used to be.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not curious.  It doesn’t mean I don’t care what life has thrown at them.   so how to ask my classmates to provide their life stories without seeming like a nosy parker?  That is the question … but I am very interested in how life has treated them all.

Because … I collect stories.

And how fascinating it would be to see how this group of people that were so connected in High School have led their lives.  The various directions and paths that were taken.  To see what bumps in the road they have overcome to lead them up to the person they are today.

WHO are they today?  What memories do they hold on to that are important?  Do they even remember me?  The same way that I remember each of them?  How have they changed?  What is their passion in life … have they found love?  Are they happy?  Are they as interested in my life as I am in theirs?

So tell me my former classmates … what’s your story?  I really do want to know!