Technology helps rebuild bonds with past

Up until nine months or so ago, I had more or less lost contact with everyone I went to high school with.

That's one of the casualties of moving two states away from your hometown. I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And there just aren't a whole lot of common denominators between Cedar Rapids and Blytheville, Ark.

The sole exception was Scott Drzycimski, with whom I still exchanged a Christmas card once year. And to be honest, I'm not sure the cards have been flowing too freely the past few years.

It was never something I lamented. The truth is, I really wasn't that close to many of my high school classmates. Indeed, most of the people I would count as "old friends" were people I met in college or through other pursuits.

But sometime last spring, it all changed. That's when my sister invited me to join the online social networking site known as "Facebook." I mainly joined on a whim — mostly out of pure curiosity over what in the heck a "social networking site" was.

And now, months later, I find myself checking Facebook at least once a day, having forged connections with an ever-growing list of friends and relatives. There are old friends, and new friends … people from high school, college and old jobs. There are even a few folks from right here in Blytheville.

You might hear some people talk about Facebook as a great time-waster. There's some truth to that. With games ranging from "Scramble" to "Word Twist" to "YoVille" to "Mob Wars," there's plenty to do on Facebook if you've got some excess time on your hands.

But I've also learned that there really is something gratifying to this whole "social networking" concept. Facebook has allowed me to fuse together bonds that I had long thought were permanently broken. And though a Facebook connection isn't the same as a face-to-face meeting, it's still a human connection, with an assist from the technology of the computer age.

I've exchanged correspondence with my old friend Adrienne Hallett, who now works at the Capitol in Washington. Adrienne sent me a bumper sticker for a Senate candidate she worked for, who shares a name with my son.

I've had contact with Laurel Erbe Slater, who has my dream job — working as a cast member at Walt Disney World. She's gave me tips for our next vacation to central Florida — after we reminisced about our trip there years ago with our high school band.

I've had a cyber-snowball fight with Robert Armstrong, hearkening back to days of flinging the real things across the parking lot outside Godfather's Pizza.

I've even had a nice dialogue with Noelle Hawk Jaddaoui, who actually graduated a half-dozen years before I even began high school. Our connection is that she played volleyball for my dad, who was the high school volleyball coach for a time.

I've gotten to hear about career updates. I've witnessed political debates. I’ve seen images of adorable children. And I've laughed at embarrassing old photos.

Belittle it if you will, but none of this would have been possible without Facebook. In a world where people don't stay in one place anymore — where old friends end up scattered across the country — Facebook is something brings it all back together. It reminds us that we all have connections that will forever bind us to certain places and people. And though time and space may stretch and strain them, those bonds will always be there.

My high school graduating class has had several reunions through the years, but I've never gone. In fact, I've never even given serious thought to attending. The way I looked at it, that part of my life was over. I'd moved on.

But now, having reconnected with several of my classmates, I see more value in a reunion. Given the distance, there will always be logistical problems. But for the first time, a reunion is something has some appeal for me. Yes, that life is behind me. But I've learned — much to my surprise — that the bonds connecting me to my past haven’t been severed completely.