I Used To Hang With Some Heavenly Creatures...

I had dinner with an old friend from high school the other night. I hadn't seen Tisha in several years and I can count on one hand how many times I've seen her since we graduated. But facebook has brought us back into touch again and it was a delight to spend time with her and catch up a bit. As the conversation went on we started comparing notes on friends and I asked about someone I have also not seen in a long time. Tisha's response really threw me off a bit. Her tone of voice dropped and she said, "I love Melanie so much. I love her the way you loved her."

I had to mentally regroup a little when she said this. First off, I never realized I wore that fact on my sleeve but then again it was high school and teenagers are all a bundle of hormones and emotional angst. But the thing that really has had me thinking over the last couple days is the fact that that was eighteen years ago and I can't say that I'm emotionally mature enough to act any differently now. Being twice as old as I was then (jeez, I am getting old!!) gives me the benefit of applied life experience but not necessarily maturity.

I've been looking back for a couple days now, remembering those days and the wide eyed wonder that I was using to look at the world with graduation looming. I felt like the world was mine for the taking. And yes, I did love Melanie. She was special to me like few have been. Most of my good memories from high school involve her and few of those moments we have in life that stick with you are mutually exclusive to her. I was never in love with Melanie but she was one of those friends that we've all had, the type that makes you say, "I'd really like to meet a girl like that." I never entertained ideas of dating her but I did love her more than I loved my other female friends but some things are not meant to be. I hope she's doing alright.