Good Times, Good Times

Recently I had the chance to reconnect with some very old friends. And by that I mean they got old, I'm still barely out of college. I noticed that when I'm with these guys we revert to the same age we were when we had the best experiences.
   For example, my best friend from elementary through high school is now a radiologist and a professor in medical school, a respected, important physician who takes his job very, very seriously indeed. I met him down in San Diego a few weeks back where he was attending a wedding, and we hung out for most of the day. Keep in mind that we've both been adults for the same amount of time, and yet when we get together all of a sudden we're both eleven years old again. Burping out loud in public, farting, making fun of other people, it's like no time at all had passed since fourth grade. We even did Mad-Libs - this time on his iPhone - and they were hilarious. 'Greasy' is still a funny word, as are lunch ladies in general.
   When I was in Texas I hung out with one of my friends who's become like family to me, we met just out of college when we were both waiters. And what did we do? We went to the same places we used to back then, the same comic book shop, the same local restaurant, the same doughnut shop. The only thing different was the fact that his car wasn't broken down and he was driving me around instead of me driving him. Oh, and he now shaves his head because he's going bald. But other than that and the fact that we weren't wearing waiter's uniforms, the scene could have been from years ago.
   Same thing when I recently met a high school friend who's been raising a family in London for eleven years. What did we do after lunch? We went to a used record store. Just like high school.
   Maybe this kind of reversion is unavoidable. Maybe familiar faces spark familiar patterns in our brains, and we just fall back into comfortable routines. Everything else falls away, better jobs and personal tragedies, divorces and marriages, deaths and births. We're back to the same point in time when things were best, between us and our friends and also in our lives at that particular point in time.
   While it's great to reconnect with friends and revisit the past, this makes me realize I'm not doing nearly enough to connect with people right here and right now. Gotta fix that.