IF ONE really thought about it, a spontaneous get-together by former grade school classmates now in their late sixties could just ordinarily be like any present-day group of graders huddling inside the school cafeteria at the moment. From a stoic standpoint, the casualness of such a happening is not really even something to be sentimental about. Besides, human interactions such as this, is but a natural phenomenon and it’s only the Kodak theme song (of the same title) that has implanted sentimentality in the whole episode.
For us involved however, the more important issue now is the fact that “we should stop meeting like this”. A few years back, when I perchance met one of my classmates in the hospital where he was working as a medical doctor, he said the subjects of our conversations whenever any of us met are easily one of the indicators that we were all getting old. When we were younger he said, we would often animatedly blab about personal exploits, family milestones, work and more. Yet the years went by, whenever we interacted again with former schoolmates, the foremost topic would now mostly be about who among our batch (or members of their family) had died. Hence, a sad cause for a reunion.
While this is not especially true with other groups involving ancient ones, it’s the unfortunate reality with our diminishing motley crew. For one, not everyone reside in the same city or region, while others are out of the country. For those who do, work and other responsibilities are the visible hindrances to meet so that, only a few could fall under what many call today as BFFs.
Nevertheless, there are initiatives to be like other batches and strive to meet regularly in the near future. Plans for worthwhile civic endeavors and merrier social affairs such as birthdays and school-related events, are likewise in the works…all in the effort to break the chain of meeting only during sad and unfortunate events.
Meanwhile, the sand in our virtual hourglass is obviously more than half down and we are not like innocent grade schoolers anymore. That’s where the comparison ends because luckily for them, they have literally got the universe (and time too) in the palm of their little hands. All we’ve got are a wealth of experience and collective memories we could use to forge a legacy which we could leave behind. If only we could hurry.
