We’re all just the same people we met the first time

Photo from here.

Reunions can stir up a number of emotions. You can feel the conjured up hate towards your old bullies, or the happiness of reminiscing with your peers. I’m glad to have experienced the latter just a few days ago.

 University life was a fun time. It was better than my high school life in more aspects. I met up with my former uni classmates who were around the area. It was an experience for all of us since we gathered in a place we’ve never heard of before.

It was an impromptu reunion. The following day, one had to fly back to the province, and another to London. The rest of us were employed in different parts of the area. It was still a sacrifice considering that we were meeting up on a weekday.

Us women drank, and the men drank more. We ate, we talked, we laughed, and of course, we gossiped. I won’t delve on that last part.

I regretted not having as many new stories to share. I didn’t think I was contributing much in terms of the talk factor. But being around them made me think of old stories. Some probably four or five years old, others were probably new and have yet to end.

It was a sign of times when we all realised how much we’ve changed. Grown-up, making harder decisions for ourselves, and not being the same people we were when we met in university. Take note, it’s only been two or three years since then.

More stories, more beer for the men, more of my voice getting lost from all the talking. We took our time spewing out memories that were either too hard not to laugh at, or awkward enough to make us cringe. We even called in another classmate to get him in on the fun.

12 midnight, and we finally decided that we couldn’t stay out any later. Most of us had to book an Uber to head home. Me and another classmate would be taking public transportation.

The one that had to fly back to London? He ended the night saying this: “We’re all just the same people we met in college. We’re just college students, just growing up in a different place.”

What he said is very contradictory to what I mentioned in the earlier parts of this post. However, it got me thinking how great it felt to be told that we haven’t changed.

Sure, we’ve decided to leave the province so we can explore more opportunities. Sure, we all went into different fields of work. Sure, we’ve all grown up.

But having someone who rarely even talks to us, someone who hasn’t been active in our lives that much to say that… it felt warm.

To ourselves, we can say that becoming an adult had turned us into new people. But to that friend, it was clearly the opposite. What he saw were the people he had classes with. It was probably a breath of fresh air for him, as much as it was for us.

While writing this, I think people who change themselves are not bad. However, leaving behind who you once were is.

I can honestly admit to myself that I’m a different person compared to when I was in high school or university. But knowing that someone was able to see that I still have a bit of that girl left in me? It makes me feel good that she’s still there. I’m happy to tell her that everything’s going well.