Reunion

I can get a little sappy sometimes.

Friday night I got to see my junior year room mate for the first time in 17 years. We lived in a dorm which I think has since been demolished, with five other women, or was it six? Eight? I didn't even remember that we lived with two of them.

This room mate, however, I definitely remember. We used to play middle-of-the-night Boggle tournaments with another roomie, since we were all studying insanely challenging subjects (Arabic, organic chemistry and neuroscience). It wasn't that we couldn't sleep...we were still doing our homework at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.

It was great be able to catch up, and to see what kind of adults we've become. While my focus has been more on social science as a community organizer, her focus has been on medical science, as a doctor whose focus is on geriatrics.

We talked about everything from the importance of story and taking the time to listen, to the difficulty of having an end of life plan and making sure to begin those conversations as early as possible.

We went to dinner at one of my favorite local watering holes, sat outside (in our winter coats), and on the way back to her hotel, I gave her the five minute tour of downtown Nashville.

I think we could've talked for hours. When we got to her hotel, I hopped out to give hugs we agreed that we were lucky to be in each others' lives. The passion and care that the people I remained connected with show to others is one of the things that feeds my own passion. Lucky, indeed.