Family Togetherness, Part 2

One day quite a few months ago, I opened my email and saw this subject line in my Inbox: “Looking for [My Real Name]”. The name wasn’t familiar, but the email domain was from my alma mater, so I decided it just might be legit. It turned out to be my very bestest middle school friend, Rebecca. We’d grown apart a little in high school, following our separate interests, but were still more or less friends all the way through. After I toddled back off to Germany and she set trail for the Southwest, we lost touch with each other. In all the years since then, we’d seen each other once, just before I left our hometown for the City of Light. I was really sad that we’d lost touch again after finding each other that time—and a little guilty, too, because I’d let myself get caught up in the chaos of my last semester at university and moving and just never got around to calling, even though I’d really wanted to. You all know how that goes.

Lucky for me, it turns out that Rebecca’s a Googler. You’ve all done this, I know you have: Googled the name of someone you know, past or present, to see what they’re up to. Or you’ve googled your own name to see what comes up. (I’m a football player from South Carolina). One day, she googled me and found my name on a bulletin board or something. I’d mentioned Germany in the post and she had a hunch it might be me. We’ve kept in touch by email over the past school year and it’s been great having Rebecca back in my life again. She’s such an interesting, lovely person.

My visit this summer was the first time I’ve been home for any length of time since we started emailing each other, so I was hoping that we’d be able to get together. Knowing that she has a child and husband (and a real job), I was concerned that our schedules might not mesh, but the Gods of Reunion smiled on us and we made plans to meet on Tuesday evening. My sister spent the whole evening stomping around the house muttering about how no one was looking her up on the Internet. It took all of the willpower I could muster and a hearty dose of intentional deafness not to point out that her little tantrum was a perfect example of WHY no one is looking her up on the internet.

When I walked through the doors and saw her standing there, it was so strange, but in a good way. She’s still Rebecca after all these years. And there was a reason why she was my very bestest Friends-4-Ever friend all those years ago. We talked all night, right up until we noticed that we were the only people left in the restaurant and the workers were mopping the floor. We left a hearty tip and skedaddled. Turns out it was already going on 11 p.m.—well past my bedtime, and I imagine hers, too. I could not believe how fast the evening went.

Thank God for Google.