Friends

                           Today I went out to lunch with my school friends with whom I have connected after 20 years!

Life has strange ways of making you go through moments you never think could occur.

At the time of leaving school, If I was told that there was a possibility that one day, I would be having lunch with a group of friends whom I only knew as "classmates" in school, I would have probably said, "not really". Today's lunch just made me believe how wrong I was.
                    During lunch, the conversation, among other things was also about personalities and how some people stay just the same over the years and how others show a radical change.
The discussion was that while most people agree that the basic personality of an individual never really changes, it is also true that experiences in life do change individual thinking and behaviour.

That set me thinking if it is the personalities that change over the years or is there a change in our own perception in general.

It is true that in school you spend most of your waking hours amongst your class friends and at a very impressionable age too. They are almost family. You see each other grow over the years through primary school all the way to high school. You make your groups, have healthy and sometimes unhealthy rivalries, exam stress, crazy crushes, insecurities, heartbreaks, pyjama parties, cheering your team on sports day and loads of fun at school trips and camps. It is purely your time, bonding with your peers. That is also a time when each and every individual starts developing his or her own personality and is known for his or her particular style and way of doing things. You think and believe that you know everyone in the class really well and know exactly what their personalities are. And then, just like that, all of a sudden, it is the last day of school. Amid results, lists and college admissions, no one had the time to say goodbye. Some lucky friends continue on together while for most it is a sudden break.

And then you have an opportunity to meet the same friends after two decades! 20 years is a long time and a lot has happened in everyone's life. So what should you expect? Will it be the same? Who knows you might bond better now than ever before!

Personally, it was six wonder years of spending time with the familiar school friends and two decades later suddenly they are back! So much has happened in everyone's life. As I was heading out to meet the same school friends, after so long, I did not know what to expect. Sooner than later I realized that I had no reason to feel out of place. They were the very people I knew in school, just grown up. The familiarity was there and deep down the personalities were the same. Soon, as we all got talking about old times, exchanging notes about who did what or reacted how to various incidents I realized that in spite of all of us leading different lives, being in different situations with different experiences, we all have a little bit of our school in us wherever we go and that is what makes us tick at the lunch table even after 20 years!

Thank you, friends,(you know who you are) for being there and just when I need it the most.