Timothy Dudek:  

Well, it's about time I actually update this thing. *Chuckles* I was just browsing through all the places I have been ~ and what struck me wasn't so much the memories, but the people. We do a lot of growing throughout our lives, and what we eventually find to be most important aren't so much the things we do, but the people we share our journey through life with. And true enough, I was in such a hurry to distance myself from a not so pleasant childhood ~ that I not only allowed so many friendships to fade away, but what really stood out were the friendships that I never made an effort to form in the first place. One occasion which comes to mind was at the start of my second year of college. One of the incoming freshmen made the effort to approach me and introduce herself ~ it turns out that she was a junior at St. Viator High School the year I graduated. Being new, and knowing that a fellow alum was attending, she said hello. For whatever reason, it stands out vividly in my mind ~ now. At the time, I said hello, probably smiled, as she was attractive, but let it go at that..... My apologies, Kerry, should you ever read this. In hindsight, I should have invited her into my social network, and helped her make the transition to college life. A friendship that never got started, and all because I allowed myself to be oblivious to the opportunity to form what might have been a great friendship. It's the little things like that which stand out most ~ like the final day before graduation when Erika struck up a conversation. Someone I never really had the opportunity to know, she put forth the effort to make a connection before we all went our separate ways ~ and I never even thought to ask her to hang out, much less to stay in touch with her. Of course there's the mountain of friendships which I let lapse in my rush to grow up, and explore the world: from the girls whom I held my first crushes on, to the friends whom I left behind me. It's not even so much the names I come across, but even more so, the names which aren't there that really make me think..... and what a list of names..... Though I don't regret anything from my life, I do take pause and think about how much I've taken for granted through the years. How many friendships I missed out on; how many friendships I let slide, how many possible relationships I didn't afford the opportunity to even pursue whether or not there was any chemistry there. But mostly, I think about the people. Not about their personas, but who they were, and are, beyond their public image which we all created during that time in our lives. If I listed every person I thought about, I'd quickly use up the 18,000 characters which they allow us here, and still the list would be lacking. As much as I hide it ~ in as far as I've always been more of a listener than a speaker ~ I am and always have been a people perso...Expand for more