Snippets of Memories

In 1980, my name was called at graduation commencement. Proudly, I walked to the podium to claim my high school diploma from CBNA. It was solely to myself that I owed all the credit of my success. No one had achieved it, but me. With it I was free to begin my new life in the service of my country, ready to leave for basic training just five days from that night.

Snippets of memories flash through my brain as I attempt to recall every detail of graduation night and the years that came before that. Speeches by classmates smarter than me. Our school colors of red and white and anxious eighteen-year-olds eager to get on with life. A sunburned face from a day at the beach a few days before, and the saying goodbye forever to many friends as we raced out our Alma Mater's door. Snippets are all I get...too much time has passed to recall in great detail a chapter so trying for me. Yet snippets are enough to create the illusion of paradise.

Many old friends dance in my head. Their facial features softened with time yet their eyes still dancing with life. One friend used to yell, 'Pizza!' every time someone shot the basketball, in her attempts to make them miss. A few young boys used to tease me, and I liked it, but didn't have the wherewithal to do anything about it. Only a couple attempts at young love ever got off the ground in my high school career. They all ended there. Now, they are part of hazy memories.

To my schoolmates I tip my hat and say thank you. Thanks for treating me well and sharing a secret or two. I wish I had shared mine with you. I wish you had asked...

Snippets of memories are all I need to revisit old friends who knock on my computer's door. I knew their hearts back then in our 'innocent days.' To know of their hearts makes reestablishing friendships easy. If I trusted you back then...I trust you now...it is the law of friendship. If I loved you then there is still a beat in my heart skipping for you.

Some friends come into our lives and are meant to stay for a short time, while others stay longer. It is not the length of time that determines the greatness of a friend, it is the quality. Come, quality, and be my friend.

If you are an old friend of mine...thank you. Please be in touch and help make my snippet of memory burst through the haze and be forever focused. Hazy is overrated!