Meeting old friends...

It's funny how people who were thick as thieves (or even just casual friends, for that matter) at school lose touch and go their separate ways. Or maybe not that funny, since people change and generally grow up after they get out of school. The thing is, classmates still seem to have this strange bond years later, even if they are no longer friends. I guess it's kind of like you survived a war together growing up, there's an undeniable connection there, something in common that never goes away.

It's hard to say if it's genuine friendship or an echo of something from the past. I generally don't look forward to meeting up with old school friends, but usually wind up enjoying myself when I do. Funny that. Still, it works only because we meet rarely, and conversations are invariably about old times and what other former classmates are up to and catching up with each other's lives (This also, unfortunately, means discussions of how much our jobs suck and whether we have significant others). Anyway, my point is, I doubt I'd enjoy myself if we hung out every weekend, because we'd run out of things to say fairly quickly. But once every few months - yeah, sure, why not, it's nice to catch up, even if we're not close friends. There's also something liberating about talking to people who aren't in your immediate social circles, which results in conversations that are more candid than they otherwise might be amongst more familiar crowds.

That's one side of the coin - the other is meeting people you didn't like or know well at school. I've been bumping into people from both groups over the past few years. I've come to realize that apart from a select group of my fellow Freaks and Geeks, I don't care much for these people. I care so little in fact that I've often sighted people, ignored them and hurried past. I hate those awkward meetings with their hollow exchanges of pleasantries and uncomfortable silences.

People you grow up with are rarely your buddies as an adult. I'm fairly certain I'm not in a minority here, because it's true of almost everyone I know. Sure, there are the odd cases where people remain buddies for ever and ever, but you don't see those too often. At least not among people in my social circles.

And thus ends another random blog post.