Tues, Nov 27
... Knowing people...
It's funny to think of the people that I "know." I know so many people from high school; people that, if someone were to come up to me on the street and say, "Do you know so and so?" my answser would automatically be yes. The question, though, becomes, how well do I really know them? I haven't talked to most of the people I graduated with since I graduated. I can tell you all about their childhood: what they looked like in grade three, who they had crushes on, who they dated in high school, what their grades were like, what sorts of extracurriculur activities they were involved in... All sorts of information like that. But if you asked me what they're doing now, if they're still "together" with their high school sweetheart, where they live, what their favorite and best classes are now, I couldn't tell you.
So do I really know them anymore? It's a strange thought, because we tend to think that people we've known, we'll always know. It goes even deeper than that, though. If someone were to ask me if I know Brian, I'd say, "Yah, I dated him; we were even engaged for a while." Have I talked to him in the past year, though? Not to speak of. Do I know what he's doing now? I have an idea, but that's only because I knew what he was planning to be doing. He may be doing something completely different, for all I know now. Do I know him anymore? Not really. Does he know me? Not really. I've changed
so much since we broke up that I don't consider myself, in many ways, to be the same person. Of course I am to an extent, but in a lot of ways, I'm not.
And yet, with all of these people, I share bonds--memories, good times, bad times, laughs, tears, classes, hanging out--that the people who are in their lives now who weren't before don't share. Just like "newer" people in my life don't share those memories. And in that sense, I guess I do still know them. I know what's been part of the background that's made them who they are; that's part of what's made them the people that they are today, and I have a place in that, just like they have a part of that place in my life.
Heh. Kinda weird to think that I helped shape the life of who knows how many people that I don't even talk to anymore.
infinite ||
abyss
posted at 9:17 p.m.
