On a random night in November, I was on my laptop having a Zoom chat with my high school friends when an alert popped up from Linked In with a name I recognized instantaneously as a friend from 6th grade.  Without having to reveal my actual age, let’s just say 6th grade was nearly 40 years ago! 

As I’m sure many people have done during the pandemic, this friend started thinking about old friends and decided to try to track some of us down.  We had a close-knit group back in 6th grade.  I still have such fond memories of those days and am so thankful for that period in my life.  While I’m sure it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies, I remember a large group of friends learning together both inside and outside the classroom:  neighborhood adventures, sleepovers, group trips to the movies, first dates with first boyfriends and girlfriends, talent shows, birthday parties, 6th grade graduation…

My family moved out of state after 6th grade and despite the promises to stay in touch, it didn’t really work – at least that’s what I’d thought.  However, during one of my pandemic organizing projects, I had stumbled upon a bunch of old letters and discovered we had actually stayed in touch for several years.  I found a letter dated from the end of senior year of high school, which listed where everyone was going to college, for instance. 

So, I’m not sure exactly when we lost touch, but I’m quite certain I’m the one who neglected to send enough letters to keep the friendship going.  I’m really good at thinking about writing – or even starting to write – but, I often don’t manage to completely follow through.  Thank goodness for the advent of social media!  -( if you knew me, you’d be laughing that I just said that because I’m not exactly a social media user – and certainly not a social media fan.)  In this case, though, social media allowed me to respond to my long, lost friend and we set up a time to Zoom to catch up.  We had such a nice exchange and we share such magical memories of our childhood that we are looking forward to finding other friends and perhaps planning a Zoom reunion.  We are now searching for other friends from our 6th grade class - starting with the friends with the most uncommon names.

In a time that has produced so many disappointments, I am overjoyed to find personal connection amidst the possibility of rekindling childhood friendships – a true pandemic silver lining.  It’s never too late to reach out to a treasured friend.

I even found a photo of us looking through an autograph book back in 6th grade!