This Past Weekend

First, a bit of back story...

We moved a lot when I was a kid, but I spent the majority of my childhood in rural Wisconsin. The last seven years were all in the same community. I knew the most of my graduating class as well as the ones before and after me. But, the majority of the kids I grew up with had lived there their whole lives. I was excepted, but could never lose the "new kid" stigma completely. In addition to the stigma, there was a bad hair style and a wretched nickname. Both generated the best rumors and stories to help me develop character!

So, when I had an opportunity to go away to college and start with a clean slate, I did. When my parents moved away from the town I graduated in, my visits diminished considerably unless visiting extended family.

As with all relationships, time and distance had their effects and left me only in touch with a select few out of the many I grown up along side.

This past weekend though provided an interesting experience. Someone whom I had by chance started talking to again through email invited me to her wedding, and I went! It was nostalgic but good. I don't know that any of the guests will call me again to get together, but it was still nice to catch up.

When I first went to college four hours from home, I always felt like I went through a transition while driving between locations. This past weekend it felt like the two me's merged a bit, but that they still have their rightful places in the past and present. Maybe some day I'll spend more time with those from the past again or maybe they'll remain in the past except for when I peek back again.

How about you? Do you feel as though the person that graduated high school and the freshmen who went to college were two different people? Do you keep in touch with those from your childhood or are they merely people to run into by chance?