once kids...now adults reconnecting

I've been rather reflective lately. Perhaps this is due to the fact that now that I'm in WV I'm interacting with many of those from my childhood. I'm talking and making plans with many of the people I have known since elementary school.

I wonder exactly how these people have changed, grown, and entered adulthood. I find it strange to think of us all as adults. I still remember playing kickball, basketball, and discussing if we should sit beside our boyfriends/girlfriends at lunch.

To think that we have now grown and had children of our own is mind boggling. I can't be that old...but then reality sets in as I see my girls chase after each other on their way to bed. I see my son walk across the floor landing on my leg in triumph. If I have grown and adapted into adulthood then it must mean we all have.

How did the time pass so quickly? How can it be that I've reached the age in which I'm not recognized by my favorite teacher of all time? Have I changed that much??? I know the answer, I see it each day I look into the mirror. I look nothing like I did then...and rightly so (I mean I have had 3 children!)

How exactly do you relate to someone whom you don't really know anymore? This woman is not the girl I jumped rope with...how can it be...she has a child. She speaks of marriage and children and careers. How can this man be the boy I shared my first kiss with? How can one of my dearest friends now be married and a pharmacist no less. How did this happen? Where did the years go??

What do they see when they look at me? What do I see when I look at them? Can those little kids we once were still ring true though our now very adult lives?

I know I have changed from the scrawny goofy child I was once but everything I was at that age still is contained within me. I still see her from time to time when I play with my girls. And, you know what....other people seem to see her in my girls. Just yesterday a woman from the girls preschool told their teacher "I swear these girls look just like a little girl that went to church with my kids years ago." Know what...I was that girl she remembered.

Perhaps those kids I remember from school can still be found within these new adult friends with their very adult lives. Maybe, just maybe when we visit and allow our children to play as we once did, we can catch a glimpse of the kids we used to be.

The only problem...what if those special memories we hold so dear have vanished in this adult life? What if the person we shared such special moments with just isn't that same person?