As an avid Facebook user, I have said before how much I love reconnecting with old friends via the social network. I cannot remember exactly when I first discovered Facebook, but it has been a few years and I have had the fun of finding friends over and over. A couple in particular stand out as especially exciting for me.
A couple of years ago, I reconnected with Lisa F, who had been a frequent companion growing up. We were "mall rats of the 80's" together, Barbie aficionados, and movie lovers. Upon occasion, we even did homework. We first met when I was 3 and she was 4, which, I am almost frightened to be able to say, was a little more than three decades ago. As with many of my friends, we had somewhat lagged in the communication department after my family moved to California in 1992. We had a few letters and Christmas cards here and there, but we had lost touch with each others' day to day life; we didn't really know each other as well any more. Enter Facebook, and things amazingly enough felt like they picked up almost right where they had left off. I was able to go out for a visit about a year and a half ago, and it was the greatest feeling to be back in with my other family. I swear I spent nearly as much time with her parents as I did my own. We laughed, we cried, it was better than a chick flick.
More recently, as in just last week, I was able to reconnect with yet another friend I have known for over thirty years. Christy S lived across and up the street from my family, and we were often to be seen playing around the neighborhood. I cannot possibly count how many games of Hide and Seek, Ghost in the Graveyard, and Red Light Green Light we played. We didn't go outside the neighborhood together very often, but we were each always there to talk to or hang out with. When we did go out, though, we always had a great time. (Chinese fire drill, anyone?)
As it turns out, Christy and I had each been looking for the other on Facebook for a long time. I was, and am, embarrassed to admit that I had been spelling her last name wrong whenever I did a search, and she had no idea what my married name was, so it took me seeing that "Lisa F is now friends with Christy S" to find her. It was literally like Christmas morning, I was so excited! While Christy and I have much more of each others' history to catch up on, I know that we will, and I can also say that the reconnecting that has happened so far has felt just like not a day has gone by. There really is nothing to properly describe that feeling. The closest I could come up with would be going to a great party with a great friend, and waking up the next day only being able to remember half the night. The best part is, no hangover!
To add a cherry to the top of the ice cream sundae that was finding Christy, she let me know that another neighborhood friend, Michelle P, was also on Facebook. Michelle moved to the neighborhood about a year before we left it, but she lived right across the street from us, and we connected so quickly that it was like we had known each other for years. We enjoyed a lot of the same music, same cartoons (Batman the animated series... LOVE!) and just enjoyed hanging out.
These three are just a small sampling of the people I have found or been found by on Facebook. I have enjoyed getting to know many of my cousins as adults, getting to know my nieces and nephews who are halfway across the country, and even keeping in touch with my own siblings has been easier. So, thank you, Facebook, for all the love.
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