I can't get the last stanza of "As Children Together" out of my head:
If you read this poem, write to me
I have been to Paris since we parted
It's amazing how childhood dreams and promises stick with us - how they seem more important to fulfill. Everything that has gone on between these two women, everything that's happened since they last saw each other - I can completely understand this to be one of the most important things that's transpired since their last meeting. I immediately think of the plans my childhood best friend's and I made, the pacts we made when we also declared to be friends forever, I'm sure we've all said that to people it ended up not being true with. I had a similar encounter with my best friend from kindergarten, we hadn't spoken since maybe middle school but in our senior year of high school - she called me up just to tell me she got into Harvard. When we were little kids all her Barbie's "went" to Harvard and she'd tell all of our teachers throughout elementary school that that was where she would be, barely knowing at the time what that meant. After all that time she remembered how I knew that about her, how after she'd moved a few times no one at her current school understood that like I did. I've talked to her maybe a couple times since, that was four years ago and she graduated back in May. We didn't talk directly again but I said congrats on Facebook and she thanked me.
I think of the promises I've made to my best friends now, the ones I've known for 2, 5, 10 years - the plans we've made and how many or how few have gone through. I still take those oaths very seriously. One of my closest friends I only met two years ago, but we were roommates on a study abroad trip to London. I'd never been on a plane before that and she'd never been out of the country. We're both broke and could barely afford the trip but we made it happen. I've promised her dozens of times that we'll go together again, and I intend to keep that, no matter how long it takes.
I do wonder though, am I doing this for her, or more for me? Is it important to us to keep those promises not only to our friends, but to our dreaming childhood self?
If you read this poem, write to me
I have been to Paris since we parted
It's amazing how childhood dreams and promises stick with us - how they seem more important to fulfill. Everything that has gone on between these two women, everything that's happened since they last saw each other - I can completely understand this to be one of the most important things that's transpired since their last meeting. I immediately think of the plans my childhood best friend's and I made, the pacts we made when we also declared to be friends forever, I'm sure we've all said that to people it ended up not being true with. I had a similar encounter with my best friend from kindergarten, we hadn't spoken since maybe middle school but in our senior year of high school - she called me up just to tell me she got into Harvard. When we were little kids all her Barbie's "went" to Harvard and she'd tell all of our teachers throughout elementary school that that was where she would be, barely knowing at the time what that meant. After all that time she remembered how I knew that about her, how after she'd moved a few times no one at her current school understood that like I did. I've talked to her maybe a couple times since, that was four years ago and she graduated back in May. We didn't talk directly again but I said congrats on Facebook and she thanked me.
I think of the promises I've made to my best friends now, the ones I've known for 2, 5, 10 years - the plans we've made and how many or how few have gone through. I still take those oaths very seriously. One of my closest friends I only met two years ago, but we were roommates on a study abroad trip to London. I'd never been on a plane before that and she'd never been out of the country. We're both broke and could barely afford the trip but we made it happen. I've promised her dozens of times that we'll go together again, and I intend to keep that, no matter how long it takes.
I do wonder though, am I doing this for her, or more for me? Is it important to us to keep those promises not only to our friends, but to our dreaming childhood self?
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