Time Travel

In my post “Percolate” I talk about bumping into a high school classmate of mine. He, doing his run and I out for a walk, and our paths happened to meet.

The other day I invited my former high school classmate to a coffee.  

We talked for 3-1/2 hours at the coffee. It was amazing to learn about all the sports he’s participated in. To this day he still runs and skis. When he was younger he thought wouldn’t it be cool to try parachuting. Instead of just thinking about doing it, he actually went and did it. He’s travelled to places where he could run or ski. He epitomizes the word “adventurous.”

We got to talking about our old school days. 

Back in the day I always knew him to say “hello” in the halls but that was about it.

He told me that we were in the same math class and that he sat behind me!

He told me that he had difficulty with that math class and that I tried to help him! 

Eventually he dropped out of the math class. He made up for the math class by attending an extra semester somewhere else.    

Our paths never did meet after we finished high school. 

It was just recently that we met and only by accident.

I remarked that we have come full circle: We grew up together. We drifted apart. We re-connected. 

   

I’m amazed that he remembered where we sat in math class. I’m glad to know that I tried to help him. Even from a young age I was trying to help people!

He remarked that we were in different academic streams, that I was in the stream for “smart” students.

I never thought of myself as being smarter than other people. In fact I’ve come to realize that I have something to learn from everyone I meet.

It’s a fact of life that my high school classmate and I ran in different social circles. 

We never really knew each other.

Now that we’ve grown up, we can if we want get to know each other and become friends. 

I think I’ll invite him out for another coffee.    

Originally Published on LinkedIn:  October 29, 2016

Image Credit:  Pixabay