It is important to do things that scare you a little.
“I’d love to see you,” he wrote and he sent me his phone number.
I called him immediately.
“Hi, it’s Kel.” He had written Kel in his email. It made me smile. “I called you right away because making phone calls can give me a panic attack, so I figured I’d just call and get it over with.”
I hate making phone calls. And seeing people I haven’t seen in eighteen years makes me nervous. But it was worth it.
I use an app on my phone when I run that says “Half way” when you are, well, half way. The last time I saw Tommy we were “half way.” We were eighteen.
Now we are thirty six. Thirty six and three kids between us. Not between us. But two for me, one for him. And other than the kids running around and the technology that allowed Tommy to make the picture below mere moments after it was taken, nothing has changed at all. He talks quickly and laughs easily. He puts his arm around you when someone takes a picture and it is neither flirtatious nor brotherly. Yet somehow he makes you feel cared for in a way that makes you feel uniquely feminine. As a teenage girl I was acutely aware of what an incredibly nice boy he was. Eighteen years later I watched him kneel down and talk to his lovely daughter and I could see what an incredibly good man he has become.
It’s fun to “keep in touch” digitally. We can watch our old classmates live their lives from a safe distance. But it isn’t the same. If you have the chance to put yourself in the same space as someone that knew you when you were half way… do it. It feels good. You can see how far you’ve come.
We will be seventy-two when today is half way. Let’s not wait that long again, Tommy.
*Can anyone really get enough of Alice Cooper?
Excitement on the side 