Inevitable nostalgia

I've been going through my boxes, sorting them to figure out what to keep and what to dump. In the process, I've found a lot of stuff that's years old and it's brought back memories. I was reading my old high school senior yearbook; was crazy to remember those times. Interesting to note that my 10-year high school reunion is coming up next year and I'm debating whether to go. What will it be like to talk to these people? Will they seem like complete strangers or will I (re)start old friendships? I was so socially immature back then; I can tell by the lackluster yearbook signings.

Also found many letters and notes from college, when I went to Brasil (twice!), or served in AACF, or went to Korea for a culture/language program (which all Korean Americans seem to do once in their lives), or found a job through IBM. Brasil was hard, but great. Korea was just hard; the only good thing I thought that came of it was getting to know my aunts, uncles and cousins better. Found a copy of my UW academic transcript. I don't know how I got through certain classes. A definite trip down Memory Lane.

It gives me joy to think of the ways I've grown over the years, but sometimes memories make me also think of the regrets; lost friendships in particular. Pretty much every person that I used to hang out with my first two years in college, I haven't seen in years. I always wonder; what happened? In fact, I haven't really been able to keep in touch with most Seattle friends anymore. Sure, some people I know I will always be friends with, even if I only see them once a year. But for the majority of long distance friends, drifting seems inevitable. Seems kind of sad to think now, but it will probably happen for a decent amount of my San Jose friends.