The Missing People in Our Lives.

2026 Day 162. #PersonalDays.

About 2 days ago I get a text out of the blue. I have not seen this person in over 10 years although we have kept in touch via social media. We used to good friends until he changed schools and both of us moved on with our lives.

It was nice to hear from him. He was travelling through my city and wanted to catch up. We went for lunch, stayed for dinner, and then we said our goodbyes. I had a wonderful time.

The conversation was juggling between reminiscing about the past and fantasising about the future. Our professional lives have diverged but there were personal and philosophical ideas that we could bond over.

This got me thinking about other such wonderful people in the past that have lent me parts of themselves. They live on in my memories and thoughts but I have not met or heard of them in a really long while.

And from what I heard recently there too are part of me living on their memories. This might affect their opinions of me, they could see that I have changed a lot or not at all depending on the phase of life they met me at.

Another thing that I did not know I would be thinking about is constanly comparing someone’s past and current self. I would look back at the behaviours and the person that I remembered and try to look for signs that would indicate that the current persona always existed, just took a little while to manifest.

I also started wondering about I had changed over the years.

After graduating high school I went through a rough period, and so did my family. Things were not so well for us financially and mentally and that did affect a lot of things in our life.

I had changed into a completely different person in 2018 where I could barely recognise myself. It was only after 2022 that I started feeling like myself again.

My friend had missed multiple phases of my life, the last we saw each other was a decade ago. We had kept in touch via social media, following each other’s lives from the vague stories and posts but never kept a record of who we evolved into.

I learned that I was very much the person he remembered in terms of my personality. Learning that made me really happy. I feel validated in how my personal journey has come full circle. I am the same person that I always was, just a lot more mature and understanding.

It’s the same feeling of when you come back to your hometown after few years of college or just living elsewhere. Some parts remind you of the old city, the one you saw before you left, but you can clearly see the new additions to the city. Both bring you joy, one brings about the nostalgia of simpler times while other brings about the idea of progress.

I like meeting new people, hearing about their lives and experiences, and comparing how similar or dissimilar our lives have become. I want to hear about what have them the person they are today and if they can still remember their younger self as well as I can.

Unfortunately the world was not as connected online earlier so there is no way to get back in touch with so many people that have sprinkled a part of themselves onto my personality. I am forever grateful and thankful, I just wish I could also thank them in person.

See you tomorrow.