This past weekend I had the enjoyable opportunity to be with one of my friends from elementary and high school days. Well that is a misstatement because after college we were still friends but had not spent time with each other in over 20 years. The ease of our friendship put us back to times of youth without missing a beat or straining to remember what we were like in our youth. This time together was a major memory trigger without an effort to think back 20 or 30 years back. We talked about the time we went camping or trips to Florida on vacations with our small group of friends. We talked about our parents and we talked about starting to age.
I am not sure all these event would make it to the written page of my own personal history but what I realized that my section of growing up would have to include her and that small group of friends. This meeting has reminded me that there is a difference about the friends we make today and know us as we are today and those friends that were part of making us that person. Personal histories are a document that explains how those relations made us who we are. We are 50% genetic and 50% environmental and those friends are big part of the latter.
This coming week I will again be spending time with my BF in the glow of growing up. We have not spent time together in 20 years. We bring our life partners to the dynamics which will change the conversation to more about today than the past. But again I will have to take notes about what we talk about and see how those things have effected my own personal story.
These very quick snippets of the past make it great fodder for writing your own life story and I will use this time to be present and then later reflect on the richness of those friendships that need to be shared in my personal life review. Who we are and what we have become is made richer because we knew these people at a time when we developing the elements to become the people we are and knowing them today validates that we have reached our potential.
TRIGGERS:
- Who were your friends for each of your years growing up? list them
- Did you have the same BF in all your years growing up?
- From that list can you remember some special times you shared with that person?
- Have you lost touch with that friend?
- Are still friends with person and how is that relationship different today?
