One-on-one and in person, I am an extrovert and can talk a lot with animation and confidence, however, when I am in large groups, I am an introvert, timid and shy, and listen, rarely talking at all. On occasion, I will call a friend and we will converse back-and-forth over the phone, but when it comes to any kind of writing—email, text message, hand-written letters—I limit my correspondence because it is extremely stressful for me. Therefore, when my friends have moved away or I’ve moved at different times in my life, after high school, a church mission, college, spouse’s employment in different states, I have not done a great job at all staying in contact with most of my friends.
I am grateful and very much appreciative of the friendships I have with so many wonderful people. Although our friendships are still intact and it would not be hard to pick up where we left off, our lives beyond our time together are unknown as I have remained silent. As letter writing or any other form of writing does not happen often on my end, calling to talk to a friend is infrequent also because I am one who can easily be on a call for a length of time and a block of time to not feel rushed is minimal. As a wife and mother and being involved with their daily activities, it’s only periodically that I’ll reach out and call a friend when time allows.
I am mostly pretty quiet and very private until recently I’ve opened up myself more through my blog. I have begun sharing more of myself with not only those that I have known going back to high school and all the different places I’ve lived over the years, but also with friends I am now just meeting. It has been exciting to reconnect, at the same time I don’t know that they all remember me, particularly classmates in high school. I have fond memories and I smile as I remember each of them. I am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone to be more open and share my life with others through my blog and inviting my friends to like tendermercymoments.com and my Facebook page, Tender Mercy Moments.
For a couple of days, a college friend came into my mind and I wanted to reach out to her, but was unsuccessful at first. Now, more so than ever, social media is a huge platform for communication and as I have recently sought to reconnect with friends, I’ve turned to Facebook and Google to find them. Yearly, this friend I wanted to contact has sent our family a Christmas Card.
At one point, I knew exactly where the Christmas cards and letters were stored, but over the course of the year, I have done some reorganizing and an area where I remembered them being was rearranged. After searching again and again, I came up empty-handed. I looked on Facebook and Google to find her and although I came across an article about her family, I found no easily accessible contact information.
The next day, I had an impression to go through my phone contact list, which at the time was for a different reason not specifically looking for her, and in doing so, I found my friend. It had not occurred to me earlier to check there. It had been a long while since I had looked over my phone contact list and I was grateful I was able to text her and find out that her number, after I don’t how many years, was still the same and I was able to correspond with her through that means. That was awesome!
When have you felt the joy in reconnecting with friends from long ago—high school, college, previous moves, etc.?
tendermercym♥ments~jld