Surprise of friendship

Today I ran into an old friend at Costco. She recognized me first, and I took an embarrassingly long time processing that it was her that I was seeing for real at the moment. I was so shocked at the sudden reunion, but I was more overwhelmed by gratitude that not only she recognized me but she approached me and said hello. That meant so much to me more than how we happened to be at the same place at the same time.

As adults (maybe especially because as adults?), we might notice someone we know from some time ago but choose to act as if you didn’t see them. I am personally guilty of that. I would not know what to say nor how to smoothly say hello and make casual conversations without thinking I was acting too weird or jittery or awkward. So I would choose the coward’s way out of what really is an opportunity to say hello and abandon it.

I’m so grateful that she came to me first. We said goodbye saying “let’s hang out sometime.” I made a promise to myself to actually act on what we said and do plan to hang out. It felt great to schedule our catching up. It felt great to see a friend for the first time in a very long while. It felt great to step up my social game and choose not to be a stranger.