I am constantly amazed at how often I forget what life is really about and how truly random things are. People and places that once meant everything to you one day stop being so. Sometimes, it is because newer things fill up your time and space. A new job, new surroundings, new friends. Other times, its a change in life. Like your friends having kids. Or moving away. Or they stop keeping in touch. Or they move on.
Whatever the reason, one fine day you wake up and realise that you've no longer thought of that person, place or things in a while. Where one day, you raced home to go play in the yard with them, now, you no longer need to. You speak to people every day for 10 years of your life and then life changes. You stop talking or seeing each other, summers go by, you buy new shoes, clothes, cars. The change is so gradual that you you have it in the back of your mind. Eventually, you forget about it and move on.
And then one day, many aeons later, you find a reason to see this person; you run into them on the street or read about them in the newspaper... and you realise that those days when you thought you knew just about everything about this person, place or thing, those days are no more. In fact, you realise how little you know about them. You realise that, as time has gone by, so too, things have changed. Where once you knew what her favourite meal was; now, you're at a loss to explain the new found ovo-lacto-vegetarian hippie streak. And yet, it was there. You just chose not to see it. You are once more a stranger.
I think the most interesting thing we fail to grasp is that we ourselves change; we change a little every day until finally one day, what stares back at you in the mirror wearing those Armani glasses and hipster clothing isn't really that happy little boy that a long time ago woke up and said, mum, I want to become a pilot when I grow up or a veter.... you know the dog doctor. Because I love dogs.
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