Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Diverging roads and all that . . .

I decided to take myself out for coffee today, and do a little reading while I was there. Sometimes I know that being cooped up alone in the house all day is not very good for me, and I need to be around people.

I was sitting in the cafe area and doing some people watching when I saw a mother walk past with two small children in tow. They were younger than school-age but old enough to walk.

It took me a moment, but I recognised her, and the fact that we were in the same year of highschool. She didn't see me, and I didn't run off after her to chase her (I think we may have spoken 20 words to each other at school), and I just watched her walk off.

It seems strange to me that there are people I went to school with who now have school-aged children. I sincerely hope to have my own children before I hear of the first grandparent of our grade. (Where I grew up, this is entirely possible.) ;)

I have accomplished a few things in life, but sometimes when I see people who are my age, it strikes me just how different our lives can turn out. There are those who have made money and those who are still struggling, those who have successful careers and those who are still at university, those who are married with families or are single, divorced or anything in between, and there are those who are thriving and those who did not make it to 30.

I don't feel strongly about it one way or another (apart from sadness for those who have died), but I find the diversity of the paths of our lives absolutely fascinating.

6 comments:

The Little Medic said...

I see this a lot on facebook as old school friends add me. Our lives must be SO different.

The Girl said...

I LOVE facebook for this very reason. :)

e said...

yeah me too, b'c i'm an internet-stalker at heart, but i find it weird when people who used to beat on me in HS try to add me. I'm serious. The other guy, this guy who used to chase me home from school and throw rocks at me while making barking noises tried to add me. I was like... are you kidding?

HM said...

Yeah like LM said, it's often very surprising when you see what people are up to on facebook. Even moreso when 21 year old ex-school mates post albums of their new babies!

Neumed said...

Funny, I was thinking along these same lines just a few weeks ago. I guess I'm going to have to check out facebook one of these days.

Dragonfly said...

So true....Facebook particularly. I had an incident a few weeks ago where someone from high school whose mother tried to get her to compete with me (don't ask) asked me "did you go to university". When I said "still there, second last year of med", I got barraged with questions about men in my life. When I replied negative...I got asked again. Clearly I am invalidated by this :-)
And as for what e said....I just figure there are reasons why I wasn't friends with some people (they bullied me incessantly etc), and have enough online and offline friends, so don't need them.