Reunion with a Childhood Friend
As many know, I moved from the midwest to the west coast during my teen years. It was a difficult time for me - I left my childhood friends and school to start anew. Even then, I never really forgot my old friends...
My oldest childhood friend (probably the first friend I made in America) and I shared many fun times growing up, from going over his place to hog his Nintendo, to collectively tolerating the Saturdays spent in Chinese school. Sometimes, his parents and my parents would visit each other; while the parents spoke of parently things, we children played.
Then, I moved away, just when communication technology started to develop. At this time, AOL was popular, CDs were expensive, Yahoo was the main search engine, and the internet had begun its proliferation. After I moved west, I used email (at the not-so-popular usa.net domain) to try to stay in touch with friends. However, because we were young, none of us really utilized email. From when I was a child to now, I always imagined the day I would have the opportunity to re-connect with old friends. Sadly, because of the absence of communication tools (and the lack of using the ones that existed), I lost touch with much of my previous childhood network...
...Until one day. In high school, I began to use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to chat with friends. Around this time, Google began to infiltrate the online realm, and, in a moment of curiosity, I typed in my childhood friend's name and was surprised to find a few results. It was from this method that I found my friend's screen name. Not too long after, I IMed him and we began to re-establish contact. It was a shocking moment for me, as well as one of the first times I harnessed the power of the internet to find someone with whom I lost contact. From then on, my friend and I spoke sporadically on AIM, until Facebook emerged. I added him on Facebook and we've been in contact ever since.
However, I suppose good ol' telephone also helps friends to stay connected. Not-so-beknownst to me, my parents have been in contact, here and there, with my childhood friend's parents. On December 22, 2009, after hosting a visit from relatives, Mom received a call from my childhood friend's parents. Surprisingly, my childhood friend's entire family was in SoCal for a few days. I was so excited for the opportunity to see them and to catch up. My heart raced and my fleeting attention span made me unproductive for the night.
The parents called each other to arrange a visit for the next day. December 23 came. Mom told us the childhood friend and his family were in town and would stop by our house. I was so happy. Words could not express the richness of such emotions. The last few holiday months have been difficult, so having this sliver of happiness (and a childhood dream realized) was a welcome retreat from the real world.
As the hour between the confirmation call and the arrival elapsed, emotions abounded, some of trepidation, others of unspeakable excitement. I wish I could somehow bottle such a flurry of emotions and let a little out each time I need some inspiration. I was quite nervous; of course he and his family remember us, but what would I say to them? Pure befuddlement.
At last, the doorbell rang. We invited our guests in and conversed about our present life. I also shared my photo albums with them. There were a few awkward silences and some nervous laughter from me, but after the initial speechlessness, I felt our group warming up a bit. In the office, I sat next to my friend with a sense of wonder. Could it be - we childhood friends - are finally reunited after one so many years? I couldn't believe it; I suppose I was in a state of shock and I couldn't break away from it. I didn't know that our meeting would come so soon. With my emotions peaking to the point of total awe at the way life works, after 2.5+ hours of catching up, we bid my childhood friend and his family farewell.
Even though the meeting was short and is a commonality in any other person's life, I felt as though a huge revelation met me face-to-face. It wasn't as though I found the meaning of my life or had a life-changing epiphany. Rather, I discovered a complex emotion - one that could not be priced, though it was highly valued; one that lives in the moment and cannot be captured. I recognized it as a once-in-a-lifetime feeling (though I can have it more than once if I somehow get the chance to visit other old friends). I felt this the final time I performed in my percussion ensemble and each unique time I danced on stage. This emotion was deceptively simple, yet extraordinarily delicious, only described as an amalgam of gratitude, wonder, intrigue, surprise, apprehensiveness, and finality. I recognized the meeting as the first time I met my friend and his family in a decade, but one of the few times I would experience such an uplifting sense of amazement in human interaction.
This post redolent of sentimentality only expresses a fraction of emotions I felt at the time. I tried to relay my experience to a friend, but was unable to speak about it in the fullest extent. For lack of words...I had a "moment." I was extremely grateful for such an encounter - I hope that the longer I live, the more of these I will experience.
My oldest childhood friend (probably the first friend I made in America) and I shared many fun times growing up, from going over his place to hog his Nintendo, to collectively tolerating the Saturdays spent in Chinese school. Sometimes, his parents and my parents would visit each other; while the parents spoke of parently things, we children played.
Then, I moved away, just when communication technology started to develop. At this time, AOL was popular, CDs were expensive, Yahoo was the main search engine, and the internet had begun its proliferation. After I moved west, I used email (at the not-so-popular usa.net domain) to try to stay in touch with friends. However, because we were young, none of us really utilized email. From when I was a child to now, I always imagined the day I would have the opportunity to re-connect with old friends. Sadly, because of the absence of communication tools (and the lack of using the ones that existed), I lost touch with much of my previous childhood network...
...Until one day. In high school, I began to use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to chat with friends. Around this time, Google began to infiltrate the online realm, and, in a moment of curiosity, I typed in my childhood friend's name and was surprised to find a few results. It was from this method that I found my friend's screen name. Not too long after, I IMed him and we began to re-establish contact. It was a shocking moment for me, as well as one of the first times I harnessed the power of the internet to find someone with whom I lost contact. From then on, my friend and I spoke sporadically on AIM, until Facebook emerged. I added him on Facebook and we've been in contact ever since.
However, I suppose good ol' telephone also helps friends to stay connected. Not-so-beknownst to me, my parents have been in contact, here and there, with my childhood friend's parents. On December 22, 2009, after hosting a visit from relatives, Mom received a call from my childhood friend's parents. Surprisingly, my childhood friend's entire family was in SoCal for a few days. I was so excited for the opportunity to see them and to catch up. My heart raced and my fleeting attention span made me unproductive for the night.
The parents called each other to arrange a visit for the next day. December 23 came. Mom told us the childhood friend and his family were in town and would stop by our house. I was so happy. Words could not express the richness of such emotions. The last few holiday months have been difficult, so having this sliver of happiness (and a childhood dream realized) was a welcome retreat from the real world.
As the hour between the confirmation call and the arrival elapsed, emotions abounded, some of trepidation, others of unspeakable excitement. I wish I could somehow bottle such a flurry of emotions and let a little out each time I need some inspiration. I was quite nervous; of course he and his family remember us, but what would I say to them? Pure befuddlement.
At last, the doorbell rang. We invited our guests in and conversed about our present life. I also shared my photo albums with them. There were a few awkward silences and some nervous laughter from me, but after the initial speechlessness, I felt our group warming up a bit. In the office, I sat next to my friend with a sense of wonder. Could it be - we childhood friends - are finally reunited after one so many years? I couldn't believe it; I suppose I was in a state of shock and I couldn't break away from it. I didn't know that our meeting would come so soon. With my emotions peaking to the point of total awe at the way life works, after 2.5+ hours of catching up, we bid my childhood friend and his family farewell.
Even though the meeting was short and is a commonality in any other person's life, I felt as though a huge revelation met me face-to-face. It wasn't as though I found the meaning of my life or had a life-changing epiphany. Rather, I discovered a complex emotion - one that could not be priced, though it was highly valued; one that lives in the moment and cannot be captured. I recognized it as a once-in-a-lifetime feeling (though I can have it more than once if I somehow get the chance to visit other old friends). I felt this the final time I performed in my percussion ensemble and each unique time I danced on stage. This emotion was deceptively simple, yet extraordinarily delicious, only described as an amalgam of gratitude, wonder, intrigue, surprise, apprehensiveness, and finality. I recognized the meeting as the first time I met my friend and his family in a decade, but one of the few times I would experience such an uplifting sense of amazement in human interaction.
This post redolent of sentimentality only expresses a fraction of emotions I felt at the time. I tried to relay my experience to a friend, but was unable to speak about it in the fullest extent. For lack of words...I had a "moment." I was extremely grateful for such an encounter - I hope that the longer I live, the more of these I will experience.
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