We humans are social beings and we grow in phases. The most common phase for every human is our childhood days, when we were still children and know so little about the ways of the world. Our knowledge of the future was limited, we think so little while we grow within a comfort system. In the process of this we become familiar with our surroundings and build a circle within it. People we consider as age mates, colleagues at school, people we could associate with.
We form this bonds during our childhood days not knowing how long it will last or what life has in store for everyone of us. During our childhood days, the friends we make are often categorized as our childhood friends. For someone like me that moved from one place to another during my childhood days, it is quite difficult for me to begin to think of people who I would consider as my childhood friends. I mean I moved to different places, it is only natural that I form new bonds with new people, leaving those I used to be with behind.
Speaking of a reunion with my childhood friends, I don't think that is even a thing. The truth is, for some of these people, I can barely remember their names, though I'm someone who often speak of my ability to remember people's face. The way my memory work is quite odd sometimes, I might not be able to remember a person's name but just by looking at them, I can tell for sure that I knew the person. Some of the memories I have about my childhood friends has faded over the years or replaced by another memory. If I were to find myself gathering in a room with most of them, I might not even recognize them anymore. This is not just about my memories only, most of us think so little of how life can change a person within just a year, not to talk of decades.
Some of these people have gone through life changing experience that has either change them for the better or worse. Which means the idea of who we used to be and whatever felt familiar among us is long gone. Most of them have become new version of themselves, a version I might not even recognize. This change is not really applicable to them only, I have changed also. In a way, we are no longer who we used to be, so even if a reunion were to happen, there is a very high chance that we would stare at ourselves with nothing to talk about.
We have become strangers to ourselves, speaking of how long the conversation will last, will it even begin at all? Because I kept wandering, what exactly would we discuss about? We are talking about childhood friends, the memories we might have of each other is that of when we were children and how many people remember such memories? We can't reignite what is no longer there because we have all become a stranger to one another, which is something life does to everyone.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Reunion in hive learners community.
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