An Old Friend

By far the most surprising day, I received a message on Facebook from an old friend from elementary school.  She saw that I was in Boston for the week, and as it turns out: she currently lives only an hour away!  We decided it would be a great adventure to meet each other and catch up–maybe visit the beach while we were at it.

[singlepic=868,320,240,,left]Before today, I hadn’t seen Katrina since I was eleven years old.  That was ten years ago!  From the little we kept in contact via Facebook, I knew vaguely that she was doing well…but really, we both knew very little about each other anymore.

I took the red line from central square to Alewife, where Katrina picked me up in her car.  She just received a GPS for her birthday, and so we decided on the spot we’d head for Plum Island.  We plugged it into the GPS and we were on our way!  In the meantime, we were busy telling each other our life stories.

Ten years is a very long time, so we never ran out of things to talk about.  I learned all about my childhood town and the people I remembered from elementary school.  Who was pregnant, who used drugs, who was homosexual, who died and who is succeeding at life.

[singlepic=859,320,240,,right]It’s funny, trying to imagine all those people off and living as young adults now.  They are all elementary school children to me still, and the thought of any of them dying of a heroin overdose or threatening suicide thoroughly bewilders my brain.  They are innocent, young, and not allowed to age.  Not to me.  Talk about a clash!

We spent several hours floating in the ocean before we had to head back.  I was due for dinner at Kelly’s house, but as our luck would have it, we hit the road at the same time as everyone else. Yaaay!  Boston rush hour!  Needless to say, I didn’t make it back in time for dinner, but for dessert.

All I can really say about today is this:  Don’t make excuses in life. Just because it may seem easier to say no, to ignore outstretched hands or invitations, you will regret saying no.  I am so glad I decided to meet Katrina.  I was weary.  I had plans, already.  It was worth canceling those plans.

I was once told by a very wise man, “It is the false shepard who tells you to take the easy road.  Life is not easy.  Do not be afraid of the difficult road.”

If I’d made an excuse and taken the easy way out, I would have missed an extremely rewarding day.