Tonight was the “BBSer Reunion GT” — or whatever they’re calling it. If you don’t know what a BBS or a GT is, just pretend it’s a party. The word ‘reunion’ I assume you know – in this case, most of the people in attendance hadn’t seen one another in 10+ years, and we mostly knew each other from when we were teenagers / young adults. I Twittered about it briefly, stating that, while I have no interest in attending a High School reunion, when I heard about this get together there was no question whether I would attend. I generally don’t make plans in advance, and this was a ‘sure thing’ that I turned down many other opportunities for in the last six weeks. As opposed to the people I went to High School with, these were my real friends. (Note to friends from the actual high school I attended: the few of you who exist were also, generally, BBSers and, as you know, we’re still in touch and good friends. No reunion necessary.)
As I expected, more than half of the people there I didn’t recognize – either at first, or, in some cases, at all. It’s been 10, 12, maybe more years since I saw these people, and some of them I only saw for a few hours, here and there. Others I spent a lot of time with over my teenage years … and some of those I still forgot the names of – though I recognized their faces, voices, and characters. A few of them looked like they had been somehow stuck into a time capsule after the last time I saw them; nearly identical to my memories, what memories I have. Which was eerie. Much more eerie than that most of their personalities seem to have likewise been frozen in time; that I’m used to. People tend to stay largely the same, beyond a certain stage of psychological development.
It was good seeing them again. There were missing faces. A lot of missing faces. It’s hard to get hold of people after so long, especially when no one knows their last names or … much else about them that might help find them, because when we were friends none of that stuff mattered. But those who showed up it was good to see.