A Fat Guy's Week in Review

Last week was my first week back at school and so far it's smooth sailing; I have kept my head above water; what ever water-based metaphor you like. So I decided to relax a little and look through other people's pictures on Facebook. Bunmi O., a former student of mine, has graduated and moved back to his home in Nigeria, or as he spells it, "9ja". He uses all kinds of hip slang like that. He probably got that from me.





The billboard in the background says "Celebrate Success". Ironic, isn't it? The world is a funny place. And I mean funny weird, not funny haha, though sometimes it's funny haha too. You understand.

Speaking of Facebook, using it I have found lots of people from my past with whom I had lost touch, sometimes intentionally. Two people in particular, are worth mentioning. The first is a childhood friend from my neighborhood named Johnny (now he goes by John) who moved away when I was about 10 years old. For a while we were best buds. Now he's living in New York City and working on a law degree! The second person is my 10th grade English teacher, Miss Westa. She is no longer teaching, nor a Miss Anything; she is married and working in Boston. I emailed her out of the blue, and to my surprise she remembers me!

It's funny how you can be excited and simultaneously apprehensive about reawakening old friendships. What if we don't have anything in common anymore? What if they have changed as much as I have, but in a different direction? It almost seems like the memory of the relationship should be left alone, not disturbed by some technological relationship excavation tool. But curiosity and the hope of picking up where we left off drive me forward. Am I a grave robber, looking for jewels in the crypt of old relationships? Or am I just a typical person, cautiously attending a virtual high school reunion, just to see what ever happened to old so and so?