Where are they now?

Maybe I'm the only one that does this, but sometimes when I get nostalgic I start googling people I've known through my life to see if I can find out how they are. It is kind of a fun game, actually.

First off, no matter how unique you think someone's name is, trust me, there is more than one. So first you have to figure out which one is the one you know. Then you have to track back through information, read between lines, etc to construct a "history" of sorts.

Having moved a dozen times or so by the time I finished high school, I've met a lot of people in my life. Maybe more than most my age. Sometimes I even get in touch with people when I find them and often they talk back. Something about being a very tall, very outspoken, very outgoing person makes me stick out in people's memories. I've been in airports and been remembered and I "come across" people, truly by accident, all the time too. It is such a small world that way.

The thing that surprises me most is how many of us don't end up where we thought we would be, but others are often less surprised by the outcome of our lives than we are. I was supposed to be a nurse in the navy, instead I'm an English teacher and I work with the boy scouts. This doesn't seem to suprise many people and not nearly as much as it surprises me in comparison to where I thought my life would be. When I "run across" people often I see that their lives do not follow the plans they had as children, but their lives make a lot of sense to me. It fits what I thought of them, etc.

The point was, I was wondering today and looking at people's lives and was happy to see how many people are in places where it seems they should be happy. Established in careers, getting married, having babies, winning awards (those are the best to find, they often include pictures and so I can satisfy the "Who got fat, skinny, ugly, pretty, etc?" curiosity.) Occasionally I do come across an obituary. That's sad. And those I'm often very sure I have the right person because of birth and geographical information. (Death is not in itself a bad thing, but when you figure my contemporaries are all in their 20's and 30's that is a life cut short no matter how you look at it...)

Once long ago I told a friend of mine that greatness happens in pockets. You know how writers, poets, actors, politicians all seem to have known each other before they became famous and then while developing in their own right are connected...? Sometimes I think I am looking for greatness in hopes I am in the pocket. Then you also have to get into definitions of greatness.

All those of you I have know, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I bid you peace, and remember you fondly. God Bless!