Have you ever had a relationship where there was an unspoken connection or bond? And that bond influenced your life?
I’ve been fortunate to have at least three of these bonds and I’m excited that I have the opportunity to reconnect with each of them next month.
In elementary school, I did not have many friends. But there was one girl who helped me gain my confidence when she became my best friend. Celia, I’ll call her, and I became very close but she moved to Toronto in Grade 6. We did visit each other a few times and then lost touch.
In 1996, Chatelaine offered to help people find their long lost best friends and I jumped at the chance. I sent in her information and waited. To my surprise and delight, about a year later Celia contacted me. She was living in Ottawa. When I traveled to the city for a journalism conference, I made plans to meet with her.
The reunion was like we never stopped being friends, even after so many years. The parting was difficult because we knew we still had a connection with each other. We were able to see each other about two more times over the next few years and kept in touch sporadically by e-mail. Each reunion with Celia was the same – we spoke and the good-bye was difficult because of our connection.
In high school, I had two best friends who were very different from each other. One of them taught me how to be independent and opened up doors to different possibilities while the other provided me the lesson of lifetime support. I’ve kept in touch with these friends over the past 20 years, one of whom I still call my best friend today.
In a rare opportunity, I’ll get to see these three influential people within a two week period of each other when I travel to Europe. I’m interested to see how we communicate with each other as there are the challenges of distance and time that try and keep us separated as friends.
It’s not the words that will be important. It’s the feeling of connection like we’ve never parted; never want to leave each other; and the desire to positively influence each other that creates the strong lifelong bond. And I can’t wait to experience that.
