"I work there too!"
After over a year of not texting, not calling, no video chats or Facebook messages, I had texted my best friend from high school. College tends to separate us, unfortunately. It distances us from those we are, or were, close to as we find ourselves as adults. As a friend had recently put it, part of becoming an adult is realizing it's OK not to constantly keep in contact with people, and it doesn't necessarily soften the strength of a friendship.
About a week ago, I had a job interview. The office was located in Midtown East, close to the heart of tourist-Manhattan. It also happened to be perhaps 20-minutes from my best friend Victoria's house.
In high school, we were inseparable. After uniting over our obsession with "Harry Potter," we discovered the city together. We explored Brooklyn, went to parties and concerts, had many sleepovers — our sisterhood was known by most in our year.
Yet in college, after our first summer break, we stopped talking. We both had changed a lot in college that first year, and we just lost track of each other. So when I texted her on a whim whilst waiting to go into my interview, I never anticipated that who I'd to be later hired by was Vicki's employer.
The next day was our first hug in a year and half.
Soon after, we spent the evening together catching up. There was no shyness, and it was as if we had seen each other the day before; she laughed at my awkwardness, and I teased her about her handwriting to our coworkers. We talked about the best and worst parts of the past two years, and the sense of encouragement and empathy created a comfortable cloud of familiarity between us.
It's funny how one can go so long without seeing another, and how easily everything can fall into place even with that being the case. With another friend, whom I hadn't seen in almost a year as well, it was interesting that she too was surprised with the ease of our friendship. In a response to a farewell "I love you," my friend from middle school, Alex, said with surprise and warmth, "It's funny, I really still love you too."
I've come to realize that friends in our lives are like puzzle pieces. Sometimes they fit perfectly and are endlessly unsurprising in how seamless the friendship goes. Others you come to realize don't fit at all in this place or at this time in your life. And others, despite all odds, somehow fit in a place that perhaps shouldn't have. I'm grateful for these types of occurrences; rediscovering friendships is surprising and wonderful.
