The Pharmacy Chick

I started this post a few weeks ago, then filed it away in “drafts”.  Recently a member on my blog roll wrote a similar post.  Its either supreme coincidence or telepathic plagarism, and considering the fact he neither knows me or cares that he is on my blogroll, I am going with coincidence.

It started with an “invitation” from my cousin.  She wanted to be my “friend” and invited me to do so by clicking on a link.  Funny, I had always figured we were friends so I didn’t see why I needed to click on a link to confirm so.  Nevertheless I did and it launched me to Facebook.  Since being her friend involved me signing up to be on Facebook also, I backed out and forgot all about it….till she invited me again, with a little more personal note extolling the virtues of Facebook. ”we can keep up at our leisure!”

 What the he**, fine, I’ll jump in and join the group. I figured it might be a cute way to keep in touch with my cousin and her family.

And then….I mentioned it to one of my friends from church…”OH! you’re on Facebook?”  “You can be my friend too!”.  Soon she invited me to be her friend…and then there were 2.

Here’s the interesting thing about Facebook (FB):  any friend can see a list of all your friends. 

 Apparently my church loves FB. Everybody who goes to my church, has ever been to my church, or has ever driven by my church has a FB page. And since Friend-2 added me, all of HER friends saw ME.  Whoa,  within about 24 hours, I had something like 30 friend requests.  The odd thing was, that I didn’t know all of these people…let me rephrase that…I knew OF these people, but not personally met all of them. But they are my friend now. I am up to 43.

Since I updated some school information, I noticed that FB offered me some “people I might know”.  Up until recently, I ignored this by focusing on those people who ASKED to be my friend and finding a few family members, most of which were on Mr Chick’s side of the family.  Apparently most of MY family hasn’t discovered FB.  One evening I succumbed and looked at some of FB’s suggestions.  Most of which were classmates from high school,  the POPULAR kids.

One thing you might wanna know about Pharmacy Chick:  she was not among this group.  Having no money, no car of my own, and being gifted with intelligence but not looks (apparently), I was part of the great-unwashed. I scanned thru these FB people and still had that same awkward uncomfortable feeling I had too many years ago.  I went thru high school on the fringe, moving anonymously from class to class, getting educated, but never breaking into their group. Graduating was huge for me. I was done..good bye..never to return.

I did however find one gal that was sort of a friend of mine in school.  We roomed together on some school trips and while she was definitely one of the popular kids, she would at least remember me.  I asked her to be my friend, and a couple of days later, I received acknowledgement that she had confirmed it.  Great!. I sent her a message with the basic content of: “hey, whats up, its been about 30 years, love to catch up with ya, let me know and I’ll send you more info!”  Well, its been almost a month, and no answer.

One person asked to be my friend. A most unconventional guy in school, best described as fringe/funky/musical type, I had no idea he even knew I existed, and I told him that. “We didn’t exactly have the same circle of friends” I wrote. “As it turns out, I didnt have a circle of friends” was his reply. I am not completely sure what he was saying, but we are now Facebook friends.  He seems perfectly delightful, and lives about 2 hours away.

Its been a long intro to this part of the story:

He went to the 20th class reunion and posted pictures…a lot of them.  I have gone to MR Chick’s reunions because he loved his youth.  I have vowed to never attend one of mine.  I envision myself sitting in an auditorium decorated with school colors, holding a glass of punch talking to….Mr. Chick. I don’t think I am too off the mark either. I looked at all the pictures he posted and they were pretty much all the people I was never friends with: The football players, cheerleaders, class officers, popular kids, etc. 

I made the right decision. I took out my Class year book the other day and scanned the pictures.  It had been many years since I opened that book..

What surprised me was how the photos still evoked the same uncomfortable emotions..30 years later. Its not like I have dwelled on it. I rarely if ever think about high school, but clearly they remain. Its weird.

I don’t miss that part of my life because there wasn’t much to miss I guess.  I appreciate my new funky friend for posting the pictures. It was an affirmation that moving on was the right thing for me, and going back is not an option.

FB, for me, will be an avenue to keep up with my present. My past can lie fairly undisturbed.

Do you have any Facebook stories you’d like to tell?

Tags: non pharmacy stuff, personal life | |