It's hard to remember a time when I spoke on the phone socially with people other than my very closest friends & family, but once upon a time it was considered a normal social practice to phone acquaintances or friends you weren't so close with just to 'chat'. Believe it or not, I did it too.
Darrin E. was a classmate from high school. We didn't really run in the same circles, but between shared classes and friends of friends, we got on well enough that we'd talk on the phone once in a while. After high school ended a lot of us set off in different paths, I think Darrin did some travelling, and I went to study at Ryerson. In the spring we managed to catch up over the phone, and one of the things he told me he'd done over the past months, was volunteer for the Toronto International Film Festival.
'How cool!' I thought, and asked him for more info. He told me how to send an email to the volunteer manager to sign up...and I guess you could say the rest is history.
I never actually saw or spoke to Darrin again. I guess when I was signing up to volunteer for TIFF, a part of me naively thought "oh, I'll see Darrin there" never really taking into account how I would find one person amongst hundreds (it was hundreds then), and that is if he even did return to volunteer.
Don't get me wrong, we're friends on Facebook, and far as I can tell he's living life and having a good time like many others on my social media feeds. I guess it was a case of people drifting away from each other. I did send him a note on FB once to say thanks, sometimes the smallest gesture or remark can have the greatest impact, without either party realizing until years later.
And while we haven't crossed paths since, I have run into other high school (Solmaz) and elementary school (Diem) classmates in my years volunteering at TIFF. [insert "small world" comment here]
Darrin E. was a classmate from high school. We didn't really run in the same circles, but between shared classes and friends of friends, we got on well enough that we'd talk on the phone once in a while. After high school ended a lot of us set off in different paths, I think Darrin did some travelling, and I went to study at Ryerson. In the spring we managed to catch up over the phone, and one of the things he told me he'd done over the past months, was volunteer for the Toronto International Film Festival.
'How cool!' I thought, and asked him for more info. He told me how to send an email to the volunteer manager to sign up...and I guess you could say the rest is history.
I never actually saw or spoke to Darrin again. I guess when I was signing up to volunteer for TIFF, a part of me naively thought "oh, I'll see Darrin there" never really taking into account how I would find one person amongst hundreds (it was hundreds then), and that is if he even did return to volunteer.
Don't get me wrong, we're friends on Facebook, and far as I can tell he's living life and having a good time like many others on my social media feeds. I guess it was a case of people drifting away from each other. I did send him a note on FB once to say thanks, sometimes the smallest gesture or remark can have the greatest impact, without either party realizing until years later.
And while we haven't crossed paths since, I have run into other high school (Solmaz) and elementary school (Diem) classmates in my years volunteering at TIFF. [insert "small world" comment here]
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