Revisiting an Old Photograph

Have you ever picked up an old photograph, one you took a decade or more ago, and let it bring back the feelings that you felt when you first took it?

I recently emailed someone I knew twelve years ago, and only briefly, if only to make that short time more real. No, not for any romantic reasons, but for sentimental reasons. Surely the person does not remember me, but I remember being ecstatic at the attention I was shown when we knew each other, even if I was likely the only one who felt this way. It is not like I wondered about this person every day, every week, or even every year, but when I did, it was a good memory. I was self-confident in a time when I never was, and all because of how I thought this person thought of me. How wrong I was, but in the moment, it was perfect.

It's sort of like having to read the end of a story, having to know the ending, and cursing yourself for putting down the book or leaving before the closing credits roll on a movie. It may not end like you wish it would, or it may be better than you could have ever dreamed. But you have to know, either way, good or bad.

My email to this forgotten person was well-received, and the response was very kind. I'm glad to know that my misplaced feelings were misplaced with someone who has, after all these years, treated them gently.

It's not like I haven't moved on in 12 years. No, I've gotten married, am planning to have children soon, and have a life for which anyone would beg, kill or die. I just had to see how the story ends, even though I know it has two endings, theirs and mine. The two stories split long ago, and although there is a new twist, the stories will never again merge.

And even if my communication with this person ends here, today, it is still perfect. I already have a my true love and, perhaps, a friend.

Twelve years later,
B. Brannen