I always thought I had disappeared.
Not just from her life. From everyone's.
It had been twelve, maybe fifteen years. Long enough for people to move on. To grow up, get busy, fall in love, get married, change cities, change jobs, change completely.
People move on, right?
Memories fade. Old friendships become stories you remember fondly once in a while, and then life takes over again.
At least, that's what I had believed.
After my first break up, I went off the radar.... There was no announcement, no explanation. I just quietly, suddenly withdrew.
I needed to find my footing again.
And eventually, I did.
Years passed. I came back on social media a few years ago. I assumed that whatever belonged to that old chapter had stayed there.
Until .... she found me.
Her message was so full of happiness that I would've smiled reading it.... But I didn't... Coz I felt.. was it surprise? Shock? I don't know..
She was so glad she had finally found me.
She had missed me.
She had looked for me.
And honestly, I didn't quite know what to do with that.
Why would someone miss me that much?
I mean it. I had genuinely assumed that everyone had forgotten me in the same way I had assumed I had forgotten them.
But she hadn't.
She wanted to know everything.
What had I been doing all these years? Where had life taken me? How was I now?
And I found myself hesitating over the answers.
Not because I didn't trust her.
I did.
But there are some doors you close so carefully that even when someone you trust knocks on them, you instinctively look behind you first.
Because what if the past came along with her?
What if someone from those years found me again?
A friend request. A message. A name I hadn't seen in years suddenly appearing on my screen.
I didn't want to doubt her.
I just wasn't sure I wanted to reopen anything I had once worked so hard to leave behind.
And yet, there she was.
Not asking me to go back.
Just genuinely curious about where I had been.
It felt strange.
A little overwhelming, even.
To realise that while I had been busy becoming someone else, somewhere in the background, someone had still been wondering where I went.
I had thought I disappeared.
Apparently, I had only disappeared from view.
Because there are people who leave your life and are eventually forgotten.
And then there are people whose absence leaves a small, unfinished space.
You don't think about it every day.
You don't stop living.
You move on.
But every once in a while, you wonder.
Whatever happened to her?
And maybe that's what surprised me most.
Not that she remembered me.
But that she remembered me enough to look.
For years.
I had always thought memories fade because life gets bigger.
Maybe they don't always fade.
Maybe they just become quiet.
And sometimes, years later, someone says your name again... and you realise you were never quite as forgotten as you thought you were.
Not just from her life. From everyone's.
It had been twelve, maybe fifteen years. Long enough for people to move on. To grow up, get busy, fall in love, get married, change cities, change jobs, change completely.
People move on, right?
Memories fade. Old friendships become stories you remember fondly once in a while, and then life takes over again.
At least, that's what I had believed.
After my first break up, I went off the radar.... There was no announcement, no explanation. I just quietly, suddenly withdrew.
I needed to find my footing again.
And eventually, I did.
Years passed. I came back on social media a few years ago. I assumed that whatever belonged to that old chapter had stayed there.
Until .... she found me.
Her message was so full of happiness that I would've smiled reading it.... But I didn't... Coz I felt.. was it surprise? Shock? I don't know..
She was so glad she had finally found me.
She had missed me.
She had looked for me.
And honestly, I didn't quite know what to do with that.
Why would someone miss me that much?
I mean it. I had genuinely assumed that everyone had forgotten me in the same way I had assumed I had forgotten them.
But she hadn't.
She wanted to know everything.
What had I been doing all these years? Where had life taken me? How was I now?
And I found myself hesitating over the answers.
Not because I didn't trust her.
I did.
But there are some doors you close so carefully that even when someone you trust knocks on them, you instinctively look behind you first.
Because what if the past came along with her?
What if someone from those years found me again?
A friend request. A message. A name I hadn't seen in years suddenly appearing on my screen.
I didn't want to doubt her.
I just wasn't sure I wanted to reopen anything I had once worked so hard to leave behind.
And yet, there she was.
Not asking me to go back.
Just genuinely curious about where I had been.
It felt strange.
A little overwhelming, even.
To realise that while I had been busy becoming someone else, somewhere in the background, someone had still been wondering where I went.
I had thought I disappeared.
Apparently, I had only disappeared from view.
Because there are people who leave your life and are eventually forgotten.
And then there are people whose absence leaves a small, unfinished space.
You don't think about it every day.
You don't stop living.
You move on.
But every once in a while, you wonder.
Whatever happened to her?
And maybe that's what surprised me most.
Not that she remembered me.
But that she remembered me enough to look.
For years.
I had always thought memories fade because life gets bigger.
Maybe they don't always fade.
Maybe they just become quiet.
And sometimes, years later, someone says your name again... and you realise you were never quite as forgotten as you thought you were.
