Out of the Proverbial Woodwork.
Reconnecting with people can put a person on treacherous ground. When you sidestep to avoid the mine, you can sink chest deep into quicksand. I find myself in that position right now (or so it feels).
Just in the last two months, more people from my past have made contact with me thanks to the loveliest of tools: the internet. People who I have done my best to maintain a civil, respectful disconnect from are coming out and forming a community centered on our twentieth anniversary of our high school graduation. The flood of people making contact with me from high school has me in several minds.
A big part of me would prefer to stay anonymous, thankful that I don't look like anything I did in high school (enabling me to hide in plain sight). I am also slightly curious to see some of those who found me so I can verify that I am not the only person still sorting things out. Most importantly, I wonder why so many of them only feel the need to reconnect after a decade (or two) passes.
There are reasons why I chose to keep off the radar after high school. While it wasn't all horrible, therapy-seeking tragedies, the bad marginally outweighed the good, and people usually don't get nostalgic about memories that evoke pain, embarrassment, and all the things that made Matt Groening call high school "The Second Deepest Pit in Hell". There is a reason why someone once said, "The best thing about childhood is growing out of it."
Just in the last two months, more people from my past have made contact with me thanks to the loveliest of tools: the internet. People who I have done my best to maintain a civil, respectful disconnect from are coming out and forming a community centered on our twentieth anniversary of our high school graduation. The flood of people making contact with me from high school has me in several minds.
A big part of me would prefer to stay anonymous, thankful that I don't look like anything I did in high school (enabling me to hide in plain sight). I am also slightly curious to see some of those who found me so I can verify that I am not the only person still sorting things out. Most importantly, I wonder why so many of them only feel the need to reconnect after a decade (or two) passes.
There are reasons why I chose to keep off the radar after high school. While it wasn't all horrible, therapy-seeking tragedies, the bad marginally outweighed the good, and people usually don't get nostalgic about memories that evoke pain, embarrassment, and all the things that made Matt Groening call high school "The Second Deepest Pit in Hell". There is a reason why someone once said, "The best thing about childhood is growing out of it."
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Ladybug/Natalie