Reconnecting By Stanley Greenberg
Lately I have been hounded constantly to join groups of my high school acquaintances in conversations over the Internet. Actually, I graduated from James Monroe High School in the East Bronx over 60 years ago.
Stretching my imagination to the fullest I wonder what we two old high school buddies could talk about. If we haven’t connected in the last 60 years, what chance do we have of establishing a meaningful relationship today?
I did join for a while about a year back and I did not come up with any former classmates. After 60 years, photographs are quite useless in trying to remember lost friendships.
One group even printed out the entire yearbook with photos, to entice my rejoining their email chat group. I am not completely negative on this point but I remember that I was a “twerp” in high school.
I was 16 but I looked like I was 11 years old. I was not a formidable “jock” and the girls just passed me by as if I was invisible. I was more than socially immature and I lived only to play 3 on 3 basketball, stickball and touch football in the schoolyard. I hung out only with the guys who were ballplayers and had little to do with the opposite sex. I have retained many old friends from my neighborhood.
I can truly understand the need for reconnecting with and feeling comfortable with old (I really mean really old) schoolmates. Both parties must have changed a lot.
Nostalgia is a wonderful condition but it is sometimes overused as a reason for intimacy. There are times in people’s lives when they indeed need other people, so I am not putting down the idea of opening doors to find friends.
There are many people in my life that I would love to reconnect with. Most of this group came to me after high school, when I had matured. The U.S. Army, CCNY, NYU Dental School and 50 years of practicing dentistry in Jamaica caused me to meet many wonderful people. I would love to connect with all of them but that is impossible.
I read of many people marrying high school sweethearts after their spouses have passed away. Who knows what the future has in store for anyone?
