We'll Meet Again, My Old Friend

My old friend, I apologize
For the years that have passed
Since the last time you and I
Dusted off those memories
But the running and the races
The people and the places
There's always somewhere else I had to be
Time gets thin, my old friend

Don't know why, don't know why
Don't know why, don't know why

My old friend, this song's for you
Cause a few simple verses
Was the least that I could do
To tell the world that you were here
Cause the love and the laughter
Will live on long after
All of the sadness and the tears
We'll meet again, my old friend
--Tim McGraw

Today at work, I was in the middle of asking this extremely handsome guy for his ID... when I glanced at his check and realized the name was a name I knew all too well. Before me, for the first time in a DECADE, was my best friend from 7th grade. I haven't seen that boy since he was this skinny little Italian boy with the same floppy middle-school haircut that all middle school boys had in the mid-90s. And when I realized it was him, all grown up and suddenly right in front of me, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

At one time, he was one of my best friends. That year was a good year for me - I probably couldn't count the hours I spent talking to him on the phone, or how many trees were cut down because of the number of notes we had written each other to pass in the hall. I even had a green box under my bed where I kept every single note; a box I didn't throw away until YEARS later. I had the biggest (somewhat secret) crush on him too, even though he was my best friend... probably because he was one of my best friends. I'd even say I was in love with him as much as a 7th grader can be in love with an 8th grader.

But as a lot of childhood friendships turn out, he left Hillcrest when he "graduated" and I was left behind. I haven't really even thought about him in a long time, which is sad, because he was so important to me during such an awkward stage in my life.

Yet after freaking out and catching up and realizing how crazy it was that so much time had passed and yet we were standing in front of each other again... my day was a thousand times better. I continued to be in the best mood - a mood change I can't really explain, but a mood change I greatly needed on a Monday morning at a job I'm really not content with.

We exchanged Myspace URLs (how 2008 of us!) and hopefully will keep in touch more. Even hang out, I hope. It would be nice to see where else these past ten years have taken my friend.

The picture posted with this blog is not one I took myself, but one taken from his Myspace. It's the picture that reminds me the most of the boy I used to know - and the boy I'm happy to see is still alive and bursting with the endless joy I always knew he had inside.