The People We Meet
Standing in the quad, he looked around with eyes that silently remembered the years that had passed. Hidden deep within those eyes were more years of experience than his face belied. The school was similar, but yet different than he had remembered. But that would have been obvious since it had been quite some time since he stepped foot into a place where he spent a significant portion of his life.
He had traversed these halls as a student, an athlete and as a coach. There were good times and then there were bad times. What made those years a memorable part of him were all the bits and pieces in between. The sports, the games, the camaraderie and the friendships that helped influence his thoughts and actions. With a slight gust of wind, these memories came drifting forward in time, engulfing him in visual canvas pieces of his past.
In recalling these memories and people of years past, he remembered an acquaintance. A friend of sorts. A guy that had no tangible connection to him in any way. Someone completely and utterly different from the people he normally associated with in school. But for some reason, they had a friendship, even though they seem to be on the opposite sides of the spectrum. It wasn’t a very visible friendship, filled with name calling, taunting and the typical high school belittling of others.
It was an interesting friendship to say the least. It started out based on assumptions each had for the other, and it grew over time into something tolerable and of mutual respect. It wasn’t a close friendship, rife with competition, taunting and often times openly expressed dislike for each other. It was like a strategic war game that was fought on the battlefield of the school grounds. How their unsteady friendship survived, he really didn’t know, but he’d leave that kind of analysis to the psychologists.
He wasn’t even sure they could even call it a friendship.
The respect and tolerance that he had learned from this acquaintance-like friend had changed him, but he wouldn’t come to that understanding until he had passed into academic history. The things that happened during those carefree days of adolescent academia were forever embedded into his personality. He had actually become a better person without realizing it. Some of those changes were a direct result of his interactions between this particular friend and himself.
They had grown up and gone their separate ways. Thinking about it now, those two years of a cautious and largely veiled friendship were special to him. It was something different than what he was used to. It was something that was taken for granted. Now that they had moved on, sometimes he wished that it was one of those friendships that had held strong.
Crossing the parking lot, he headed toward the edge of the campus where he was parked. Opening the door and settling himself into the car, a thought crossed his mind. “Sometimes, you don’t even realize that you’ve even learned anything from the people that have passed through your life, until too much time has passed to thank them.”
He silently thanked his now absent friend for the opportunity to get to know him and drove away.
