Making a Small World Smaller

I moved to beautiful Gig Harbor, WA in 2008.  That’s 32 years and 2,400 miles (I Googled it) away from where I graduated from high school in Kettering, Ohio at Archbishop Alter High School.

Needless to say, the years and miles had distanced me so far from that time and place in my life that I had assumed it to be forever severed from my current life.  But … not so fast.

Through the wonders of social networking tools, I have bridged the distance of time and have “re-connected” with a number of old acquaintances that I had not heard from or seen for many, many years.  And, much to my surprise, I have discovered a number of my old friends and classmates living right here in the Pacific Northwest!

Within a few months of relocating to Gig Harbor (from just outside of New York City at the time) I connected with my best friend from high school through Linked-In and discovered he lives in the Redmond area.  A few weeks later, I also “linked” to an old friend from my first job back in Dayton at NCR who now lives on Bainbridge Island.  Then, as my graduating class approached its 35th year reunion someone started up a Facebook group page for this event and I discovered at least three more old classmates living in the Seattle/Tacoma area.

In 2011, I threw a small Ohio State vs. Michigan football game party at my house in Gig Harbor and had 4 members from my high school and 2 other Ohio State graduates in attendance – 2,500 miles away from Columbus, OH.  This did not include the 3 other people I know who live nearby but could not make it to the party.  And, these are not just people who attended my high school or my university; these are people I knew back in 1976!  In 2011, counting some other visitors I had to my house that year, I had more high school friends visit me than I had collectively visit in my homes during the entire 35 years since I graduated.  How weird is that?

Yes, it is a small world after all, and social media is helping us shrink it even more and helping us turn back the clock of time, as well.  I love reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances through Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, etc. and, in the process, I’ve made many new friends, too.