The other day, as I was walking around campus, I passed a girl at the bus stop that I swore I knew.
Without any thought process, my knee jerk reaction was that I'd met her before, had gone to high-school with her.
As soon as I thought for even a second though, I realized that girl couldn't possibly be 'A', because she died last year. For some reason that I still can't quite explain, that really hit me and all of a sudden, I was ready to cry: for her, for her family, and for the fact that, even if it was only for a second, I'd forgotten.
'A' and I were never close; she was a year below me, and we'd never had any classes together. But we rode the same bus to school, and had talked a few times sophomore year, the way that you do with other people on the bus.
After I graduated a few years ago, I never really thought about her. In a way, I forgot her.
Until the messages started filling my news feed - words of encouragement, thoughts, memories...
And when she passed away a year later, the messages came back. This time, directed towards her family, her close friends, her boyfriend. Mostly from people who, like me, never really new her, but all wished now that they had.
It makes me wonder if we ever pay enough attention to the people around us, if we ever really take the time to get to know the girl sitting right next to us.
I never think I see my grandfather on the train, or my uncle at the store, because when they were alive - I paid attention - I knew them. And when they were gone, I knew that, too.
With 'A', I think I never paid enough attention, and now that memory follows me. Every once in a while, I think of 'A' - the way I never did when she was alive.
In retrospect, as I looked back at the girl on the bus stop, she looked nothing like 'A' - there was no similarity to point to.
For some reason, at that moment, I needed to remember the girl in my high-school that I never took the time to know.
<3
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Without any thought process, my knee jerk reaction was that I'd met her before, had gone to high-school with her.
As soon as I thought for even a second though, I realized that girl couldn't possibly be 'A', because she died last year. For some reason that I still can't quite explain, that really hit me and all of a sudden, I was ready to cry: for her, for her family, and for the fact that, even if it was only for a second, I'd forgotten.
'A' and I were never close; she was a year below me, and we'd never had any classes together. But we rode the same bus to school, and had talked a few times sophomore year, the way that you do with other people on the bus.
After I graduated a few years ago, I never really thought about her. In a way, I forgot her.
Until the messages started filling my news feed - words of encouragement, thoughts, memories...
And when she passed away a year later, the messages came back. This time, directed towards her family, her close friends, her boyfriend. Mostly from people who, like me, never really new her, but all wished now that they had.
It makes me wonder if we ever pay enough attention to the people around us, if we ever really take the time to get to know the girl sitting right next to us.
I never think I see my grandfather on the train, or my uncle at the store, because when they were alive - I paid attention - I knew them. And when they were gone, I knew that, too.
With 'A', I think I never paid enough attention, and now that memory follows me. Every once in a while, I think of 'A' - the way I never did when she was alive.
In retrospect, as I looked back at the girl on the bus stop, she looked nothing like 'A' - there was no similarity to point to.
For some reason, at that moment, I needed to remember the girl in my high-school that I never took the time to know.
<3
Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Bloglovin'
