Doubling Back - or - The Brock Connection
It always amazes me what a small world it is, and how things circle around on you. People and places from the past that you'd thought forgotten, which resurface in the oddest places.
For my first year of university, I went to Brock. And hated it. I was homesick, lonely, and wasn't all that thrilled with the school/city/program, etc. I didn't really get to know anyone there, except for my 3 housemates, Carla (fellow first year), Misty & Alicia (2nd years, who'd lived together the previous year). And I admit, I wasn't around all that much, as I spent a lot of my weekends in either Aurora or Toronto. But still, we had a good year together - birthday parties, late night conversations, etc. We didn't really keep in touch after I left Brock - got a bit of mail from Misty, emailed/ICQ-d with Carla a bit, but much as I intended to, I let things slide, and didn't keep up the efforts (which I regret).
I moved on to U of T, which was absolutely the best decision, made so many great friends and memories there, and slowly the year at Brock faded from my conciousness - I have some pictures, and memories, but not something I thought about a whole lot. Until this past summer/fall, when my first year school circled back to meet up with me at my graduate school (short lived as it was).
First of all, over the summer, I met Dave, who as it turns out had gone to high school with Misty, which seemed like a rather random thing to me, but cool. Small world, etc. Then within my first couple of weeks at Western, I'd befriended Angela, who, as it turns out, went to Brock for her undergraduate degree. We'd started the same year, and lived in the same residence (although no where near each other - it was a large complex of 12 'courts' made up of 12 or so townhouses each). She'd had a great time at the school, and really enjoyed it overall. So while it wasn't my cup of tea, we had a similar frame of reference for things in and around the school, a common ground to start out on. And just this past week, we discovered that she had gone to high school with Carla. Again, small world, and neat how threads cross and connect with one another across space and time. Haven't made any cosmic connections to Alicia yet, unless you count the fact that she was from London, my current residence. A tenuous link to all 3 .... who would have thought?
If I had a digital picture of the 4 of us, I would add it here.... but alas, all of my photos from those days are 'real' ones, so no go. ;)
But just for fun (and because for whatever reason, I still remember...) - I'm going to list all of Misty's siblings - she was the oldest of 8 kids (many were fostered and/or adopted, but all loved the same), and she talked about them constantly, they sounded like such an awesome and loving family. She was totally shocked one day in the middle of the year when I asked about all of her siblings by name (that I knew/remembered them all), and to this day, I still know them all.
So: Misty, Matthew, Brittany, Curtis, Ed, Angel, Tiffany, Jasmine. :D
When I knew her, Misty was 21, and the youngest, Jasmine, was 3, with the others all ranging inbetween. She had pictures of all of the kids everywhere, and they were all unbelievably adorable and cute. Misty was going through the Child & Youth program, and I hope that she's a teacher somewhere now - she'd be an amazing one. I wonder if Carla is an accountant, and Alicia is ... well, she switched her major to linguistics, so not sure. Perhaps a speech language pathologist?
I wonder.
For my first year of university, I went to Brock. And hated it. I was homesick, lonely, and wasn't all that thrilled with the school/city/program, etc. I didn't really get to know anyone there, except for my 3 housemates, Carla (fellow first year), Misty & Alicia (2nd years, who'd lived together the previous year). And I admit, I wasn't around all that much, as I spent a lot of my weekends in either Aurora or Toronto. But still, we had a good year together - birthday parties, late night conversations, etc. We didn't really keep in touch after I left Brock - got a bit of mail from Misty, emailed/ICQ-d with Carla a bit, but much as I intended to, I let things slide, and didn't keep up the efforts (which I regret).
I moved on to U of T, which was absolutely the best decision, made so many great friends and memories there, and slowly the year at Brock faded from my conciousness - I have some pictures, and memories, but not something I thought about a whole lot. Until this past summer/fall, when my first year school circled back to meet up with me at my graduate school (short lived as it was).
First of all, over the summer, I met Dave, who as it turns out had gone to high school with Misty, which seemed like a rather random thing to me, but cool. Small world, etc. Then within my first couple of weeks at Western, I'd befriended Angela, who, as it turns out, went to Brock for her undergraduate degree. We'd started the same year, and lived in the same residence (although no where near each other - it was a large complex of 12 'courts' made up of 12 or so townhouses each). She'd had a great time at the school, and really enjoyed it overall. So while it wasn't my cup of tea, we had a similar frame of reference for things in and around the school, a common ground to start out on. And just this past week, we discovered that she had gone to high school with Carla. Again, small world, and neat how threads cross and connect with one another across space and time. Haven't made any cosmic connections to Alicia yet, unless you count the fact that she was from London, my current residence. A tenuous link to all 3 .... who would have thought?
If I had a digital picture of the 4 of us, I would add it here.... but alas, all of my photos from those days are 'real' ones, so no go. ;)
But just for fun (and because for whatever reason, I still remember...) - I'm going to list all of Misty's siblings - she was the oldest of 8 kids (many were fostered and/or adopted, but all loved the same), and she talked about them constantly, they sounded like such an awesome and loving family. She was totally shocked one day in the middle of the year when I asked about all of her siblings by name (that I knew/remembered them all), and to this day, I still know them all.
So: Misty, Matthew, Brittany, Curtis, Ed, Angel, Tiffany, Jasmine. :D
When I knew her, Misty was 21, and the youngest, Jasmine, was 3, with the others all ranging inbetween. She had pictures of all of the kids everywhere, and they were all unbelievably adorable and cute. Misty was going through the Child & Youth program, and I hope that she's a teacher somewhere now - she'd be an amazing one. I wonder if Carla is an accountant, and Alicia is ... well, she switched her major to linguistics, so not sure. Perhaps a speech language pathologist?
I wonder.
posted by C at
11:45 PM
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