Bringing the Past and Present Together

 

We're still doing ZOOM meetings, and in a way that's really great because it allows many of us to "get together" no matter how many miles separate us.

 

I went to college at Fordham University at Lincoln Center (NYC). I was part of a terrific Theater Department. Some of our alumni went on and made careers in the theater (or movies or TV), some dabbled in other arts like writing (me!!!!), teaching, and various other lives. While some remained in the city, others scattered across the country and even around the world. And with the power of the internet and the capability of virtual meetings, we've been able to hold a couple of get-togethers face-to-face..

 

True, some of our old gang (talking figuratively, not literally) aren't present, some aren't interested, some have other obligations. But for those of us who do make it, it is a wonderful opportunity to chat and bring our friends up to date in our lives. For the hour and change we spend together it's a wonderful respite and a momentary return to our youth and dreams.

 

While we exchange tidbits about our current day lives, the changes, our joys, and in some cases worries, we seem to magically return to our old selves, the young adults who faced the world with excitement and determination. Even if we've had a long interval since we communicated and even if our contact now is relegated to occasional Facebook comments, actually having the chance to talk and laugh, share, and care about one another is an absolute boon to our lives.

 

Our school was special, maybe not really any more than others, but we felt so connected in those years and THAT made it special. We laughed at jokes that only those of us who were there can truly understand. Our college years, all school years, helped to make us who we are. These are people that we shared common interests with, we shared experiences… we grew.

 

And so to my fellow alumni, thank you for being in my life — again.

.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD (after all)

When we were little kids the world seemed so very big and immense. We tried but we couldn't possibly know everyone. But then as the years go by the friends we knew in our "yesterdays" seem to have gone their own way and we don't hear from them much anymore. And yet, so often we find reminders, connections, and sometimes even the people themselves…

 

In my own life there have been so many coincidences where my "yesterday" becomes part of today. In the past few years my husband and I made a move more than 100 miles away from where I grew up (not far from where he grew up). Since living here I found that among my "new" neighbors was an acquaintance from around the corner in my childhood neighborhood and even more recently I found that one of my NOW neighbors is the nephew of my next door neighbor when I was all of five or six years old. Not quite as close to where I live now, but still quite local, is a woman who lived in the same community that we raised OUR children in.

 

Although it isn't coincidence at all, it still is sort of mind-boggling to find distant relatives (many you never even knew existed!) after doing a DNA test; I did 23andME. The few I have been in touch with have amazingly similar attitudes and views… so much so that one 2^nd cousin who lives more than 2,000 miles away, someone I have never met face-to-face and only learned about recently, agrees with me that it almost sounds as if we grew up together! (Genetic memory?) It is ironic to find these long-lost relatives and find out how much you have in common.

 

Another amazing small-world connection occurred nearly 50 years ago when my soon-to-be husband and I were planning our wedding. I was getting our important documents together for the marriage license and such when I noticed that we were BOTH born at the same hospital and BOTH delivered by the same obstetrician 16 months apart! — no, our moms did NOT know each other, and our parents did not live in the same neighborhoods.

 

My husband and I raised our children in a suburban community more than an hour and change from where we were born, so imagine my surprise when I went into a local pharmacy and noticed the pharmacist's name tag, it was the same last name as the obstetrician that had delivered us. I jokingly asked the man if he had any relation to the doctor, and it wound up that the man who delivered me (and my husband) was the uncle of this pharmacist!

 

Six degrees of separation refers to a theory that all people on Earth are connected to one another by no more than six separate individuals. A theory that parallels the idea that “it’s a small world,” it maintains that, through a series of connections or steps, all people have the potential to know one another on a first name basis through mutual acquaintances. (wisegeek)

 

You never know where or when the past and present are going to collide. Don't be surprised, it is, after all, really a small world.