High School Friends

In high school, I hung out with a group of geeks, freaks and misfits. I am glad I did. We were a creative bunch with very individual personalities and we were very happy to be set apart from the popular bunch and chic clique. In fact, we prided ourselves in our differences and quirks. Besides, I think that the group was by far more interesting.

My longest standing friend was Dori. Dori and I have been in each other's lives now for something like 20 years. We lost touch for about 3 or 4 years after we finished school. My mother felt Dori was a bad influence and had decided that I was not to phone her or hang out with her anymore. And I also think that getting involved with University and college we both explored different roads. But it was wonderful to meet up with her again. As soon as I was married and out of my mother's house (and back from honeymoon) I got Dori's number from her mum and made contact.

Ralphie was a fantastic pal in high school. Loved metal, was a bit of a rebel, but really sweet. Only stayed for a year or so and then vanished. Not a word. Nothing. Two years ago, I received an email from him through SAReunited. (How fabulous is technology, eh?) And just like that, Ralph is a part of my life again, just as though those intervening years never happened.

I haven't really tried to find out what happened to many of the people I knew in high school. There were a few I was curious to know what happened to. Glen, who was a bit of a hippy and stoner, is now a rabbi. I can't remember who told me that. Then there was Paul The Slut, who bragged about losing his virginity at 15 to an older woman and who believed he was the reincarnation of Jim Morrison. I bumped into him on a visit to South Africa four years ago and he was working as an extra for TV shows. Tony's profile on SAReunited announced that he was working as a scuba instructor in the Bahamas.

I have tried to reconnect with a few other friends from high school, but the spark just isn't there. We were different people then, who moved off in different directions, and the friendship we remembered having is not viable in our new incarnations.

Some friendships die immediately after the last day of school. One girl told me, after I called her a couple of months after school finished, "That was high school. I really don't want to talk to you or see you again." I have NO idea what I did to piss her off. Weird.

Other friendships fade and then wink out. Some people simply lose touch with each other because of the sudden urgency life takes on after leaving school. Most of the people who have contacted me through SAReunited have been people I used to have a lot in common with, but not so much now. The gap created by growing into our lives and into our selves have been far too wide. Then again, with just a handful of people, it feels like there was no time between us at all, and that we have simply picked our friendship up where we had left off. And that is somthing special.