You’re stuck in an elevator with a person
from your past. Write this scene.
I’m a little
stumped on this one. Too tired to think….whose the first person from my past
that comes to mind….well, I do often think of those I went to school with or
grew up with. Thanks to social media, there’s only a very few left who I don’t
know anything about anymore, and if I were to meet one of them in an elevator,
I can imagine it would start out with hugs and hellos and questions about where
and what we are both up to in our individual lives. This is kind of what high school reunions are
for, right? Unfortunately, for me, my friends not only came from my own high
school, but also the one across town that my brothers graduated from and also
from my church (several of whom moved away and graduated from other schools in
different states), so it would truly be hard for me to ever reunite with all my
friends from that time period.
The area I
came from in Alabama is so transient due to the fact that it is home to the Space
and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) and Redstone Arsenal. In fact, half of the people I met out on
Kwajalein live there now (Huntsville) because it’s also home to Kwajalein Range
Services (KRS), so it’s not very much like the “South” as all the stereotypes
would suggest because families came and go from all over. They do not all have heavy, lazy southern
accents, and they are not all hicks and “country,” but that’s because hardly
anyone actually was born and grew up there.
It’s just one of the stops on their journey of life. Of course, I didn’t realize that it was not
like the stereotypical South until I moved away from it, and maybe that’s part
of the reason I like traveling and am not scared to move to a brand new place
because I watched so many friends come and go, and I even voluntarily chose to
move with my mom to a new school district after middle school. I was, obviously, not a military brat, and I don’t
really wish I was, but I do admire my friends who make that choice and the
sacrifice. Growing up around so many who were military or moved around like
military brats helped me appreciate what it means to serve, and I have so much
respect for the families who support their military spouses. Living that way,
moving every couple of years, for the most part, creates such well-rounded
individuals who are socially mature, flexible, and very, very adaptable to
change. Amazing!! A lot of my social
maturity and adaptability to change came later, but being around others who
already had those skills growing up opened me up to the idea that I could be
that way too someday.
So, although
I got off on a rabbit trail there…call it my tired brain (I’m in random mode) my
person from the past in the elevator, it would be all those friends that
“disappeared” from my life over 20 years ago that I have never reconnected
with. Those growing up days are pretty
special, no matter how difficult or chaotic they may have been because they
made us who we are today.
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