Last week a friend from high school posted a documentary he and another friend had made of our senior musical. He is digitizing his old films and although there was degradation after all those years, it was wonderfully bittersweet to watch. The hairstyles and fashions are a testament to the accuracy of Stranger Things, although I would never have talked to adults the way some of those characters do!
It was sweet to see people that I hadn’t seen for 40 years, bitter that I can’t remember most of their names. Overall, my nostalgia meter was off the charts and I found myself a bit melancholy even while laughing at the teenage me.
Don’t get me wrong, high school was not all sunshine and roses. In one of my speeches, I talk about how some deep insecurities and relational patterns I battle with took root in me during those years. I was definitely a dweeb with a foul mouth and cruel sarcasm (just not to the adults), un-athletic and a “Band Fag,” as the football players called us. And in the U.S., fag was not another word for cigarette in the 80’s.
Still, I had great times in high school. I knew everyone in my class and I’m fairly confident everyone knew me. Not in a popular sense, but a “Yeah, I know that kid” way.
Then something really cool happened. The student director of that production cyber-stalked me (n a good way), found me on facebook and messaged me. We hadn’t spoken since graduation and he saw me on the video and wondered, “What happened to Jeff Van Meter?” I can honestly say it made my month.
It got me to thinking, who could you do that for? It prompted me to send to my email subscribers (y’all) that I haven’t written to in almost two years. And, I saw some faces on the video that I want to connect with.
So whom is it for you? Whose month could you make better if you simply said hello? There is not a better time in our world than right now, today.
Say hi to an old friend.
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