First Kiss

A few months back, I had a wandering conversation with CH about high-school which prompted me to look up TM, the first girl I ever kissed. A simple search of Google resulted in a profile. It probably would have ended there, but the profile indicated she was working with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker service organization. With my own Quaker connection fresh in my mind, I figured I'd reach out and make a connection. After actually getting in touch with her a couple weeks ago, we recently chatted for a bit, playing catch-up.

As I left for Journeygal's place (game night, hooray!), I spent some time reflecting on my memories. I usually don't spend much time dwelling on the past, and I certainly want to avoid a personal "High Fidelity" journey. My memories of TM are almost universally sweet, as we lived far enough apart that we never got to spend any sustained time together. A relationship was pretty much out of the question, as was the reality of dealing with each other day-to-day, week-to-week, ups-and-downs (CH will testify that I could be a moody jerk back then; Still? Really? You're a jerk, self-critical voice in my head! :-))

TM pointed out that she was a young thing of 15 at the time, which must be true, as I was 17. My dominant memories are actually of the letters she'd write. I remember them as ... poetic. Ok, my dominant memories are of the first kiss and the letters.

Most of my good friends from college and I have an explicit understanding that our current relationships aren't based on the telling and re-telling of college stories, but it's an element that we don't ignore. Having wallowed in memories for a few moments, I wonder whether it's possible to connect and relate to a woman who I barely knew as a young adult? There certainly aren't a lot of shared experiences to fall back upon!

Life in the age of Google is certainly a lot more interesting than it might otherwise be.