I used that word today for the first time that I could remember. I was in a brief email exchange with an old friend from a long time ago. I would imagine that this is the one great thing about being human. Good or bad, for what it is worth, there are times in one’s life when a moment of reflection sparks a flood of memories that you just can’t stop from flowing.

There is a website, classmates.com that I fooled around and signed up for years ago. Every once in a while I head back over there to see if anyone new has joined up. That was the case last week when I ran across an old friend. He was at one point a quasi room mate and quite an interesting fellow to hang out with. So I did what most do, I sent the obligatory “Is this XXX who was at XXX during XXX? I got a reply. It was him.

A few lines back and I had his e-mail and website that was quite a surprise. I am not sure what I expected, but time does mature people. It was the proof in my mind that we all have grown up. I could see signs of the friend from years ago, but there was also a very adult person with three kids who was now a professional for a major company. That was reality in my mind. The guy I knew was now a man with a family. I began in some small way to look at myself a little differently. Good Job… check. Loving wife…. check. Homeowner…. check. Dog….. check. Kid…. on the way. OH MY! I am an adult! When did that happen…? Anyhow, back to the story.

That one experience made me think about our other friend back then, which led me think of another, and another and before you know it I had googled and found as many of them from that point in my life as I could. To my surprise, one by one, the responded. It was amazing. It was as if a period in my life had been sitting on a shelf for years and was simply collecting dust. I now find myself discovering old friends all over again. Sure, back then we all had our differences and moments, but it was always forgotten in lieu of having fun. More importantly, none of that matters anymore one bit. I suppose within all of us “adults” there is that 20-something just waiting to come out and re-live memories of old.