I am a sucker for nostalgia, sad breakup songs, and memories.
I take too many pictures and scroll through them frequently.
I do not forget about people.
Or the situations that made said people relevant. I'm usually very good at pinpointing exactly when someone or something affected my life, whether positively or not.
If you ask me how we met, when you became important to me, or even when/if you stopped, I can probably tell you.
Nearly everyone I've had more than a few days worth of interaction with I'd probably be able to recognize if I saw them on the street. I can tell you every teacher I had Preschool through Senior Year and the order of my secondary classes. I can remember every professor I've had in college. If I had another student in more than a couple of classes, or saw them frequently outside of class, I'd be able to recognize them even years later (it's happened before).
Even friendships and relationships that were ended purposefully and abruptly for one reason or another I still remember and often catch myself thinking about. My belief is that because touching the lives of as many other people as possible is important to me, it makes it that much easier for people to touch mine as well.
With that being said, it's no surprise that many of the friends I've made since I was 4 I remember vividly. Memories from as early as preschool. The girl that was my friend simply because we were put into the same class all the way up until second grade. Even though we stopped being friends after that.
My elementary school best friend moved across the world when we were in 4th grade. We kept in touch via email for a bit, but even that fizzled out eventually. She crosses my mind frequently even though communication stopped years ago. I hope she is successful and doing well.
Obviously, social media has made it much easier to stay connected with friendships that would have long ago passed away. I'm still friends on Facebook with people that I stopped talking to in real life, which some people may find ridiculous. But I am generally interested in other people's lives, even if their friendships had become toxic to me previously. I'm not sure why, and there are times I've wished I could forgive and forget. But I definitely don't forget.
I have several friends that I don't talk to anymore or that I only reach out to occasionally that I sometimes wish I did. Some of them just faded on their own, others ended because of avoidable circumstances. I'm sure we all have those friendships that we wish we could rekindle, but out of fear of rejection or other reasons we just don't reach out. There are a couple specific people that I can think of personally. We see each other's lives through Facebook statuses and Snapchat stories. We like each other's Instagram posts. But it's been far too long since we've talked via Messenger or text. Even longer since we've interacted face to face.
I think of you fondly, and often. Maybe one day one of us will strike a conversation again.
But until then, I still remember you.
I still remember all of you.
