You Know I Love the Random Reconnections

Lunch today involved me being told that someone else was joining my friend and me. With this friend, that's the norm, so I didn't think twice. Just tried to remember the new person's name.

Then I found my friend in the cafeteria and all but shouted at the person sitting across from him. We were in the middle of a it's-been-a-long-time-hug when my original lunch date got out, "Wait, you know each other?"

"We went to college together," said the long-lost friend giving our graduation years. I talked over him that his brother was my next door neighbor freshmen year and dated my roommate for a while. "It was awkward."

The conversation took a while to find its rhythm. When you know you're going to run into someone you follow one script. When you randomly bump into someone you follow another. When my lunch date introduces me to someone there's a whole different protocol than when everyone already knows each other. None of them quite fit our situation, and I think we tried them all.

Next time will be more natural. It might not happen until January--finals and then holiday travel make it hard to make plans with me right now--but I'm excited for when it does.

"you play trumpet?"

After hearing my name and that question, I was surprised at how quickly I was able to place the speaker. I only played during middle school, so figuring out what time frame and what location he'd known me in went pretty quickly.

I hadn't seen him since we left middle school, so there was the brief exchange of paths since then. I was curious why he chose to do this. When he returned the question, I pointed to our shared past. "Why weren't you in my honors classes back then?" My classes did not reflect the race makeup of the school, but it's clear that people can be successful despite not being in them (or not successful even though they were there).

Just a reminder of the small world. The way the world shifts. And the reason why I'm here.