Yesterday, I got a death scare. Well, not just me, but almost everyone in my graduation class, from secondary school. You see, I woke up to the tragic news that one of our old classmates was dead. And from then, it was a series of bad news. After the initial shock, we wanted to know what caused his demise. Why did he die? Was it an accident? Did he fall ill? Was he killed?
However, the person who shared the news didn’t know either. All he knew was that the classmate was dead. However, that wasn’t enough for many of us, we wanted to know more and we decided to try finding his phone number. At least if we called it, a family member would answer the call and probably update us on what was going on.
It was then we realized that none of us had his number. At least none of us in the group has his phone number, it was crazy! A group of close to 200 students and not one person had this guy’s number. It was as if since we graduated no one had been keeping in touch with him. Personally, we used to be close friends in school, however, when we graduated, we slowly drifted apart. Ours was the kind of relationship that once school stopped being our common factor, we stopped seeing the need to communicate.
However, there was another guy who he was close to also our classmates. Last we heard, they were working together or some sort. As luck would have it, this particular guy didn’t have the number either, because he too had stopped seeing the guy for a while. By now, hours had passed by and we were still yet to get any update on the matter. It was around noon we finally got something new, but it wasn’t factual, just an assumption. They said that the death could not be a recent thing, that there was a possibility that he had been dead for two years now.
This only made it worse! Do you know how bad it would be if a friend passed and none of us knew for two whole years?! At this point, we were all lamenting not reaching out to him. We all felt guilty in a way because back in school he was our friend, and after school, in search of our own lives, we forgot all about each other. It was a sad moment.
However, the real shocker came when one of us managed to get the dead guy’s sister’s phone number. They were able to pull the number off Facebook and then tried talking to her, that’s when we heard that it was all false! The guy wasn’t dead, matter of fact, he was just chilling at home and living life like he had no care in the world. He didn’t even know that online, people were almost planning his wake.
So, a backtrack began and we tried to figure out the source of the misinformation and it all came from one person assuming the wrong thing! The guy in question had simply remembered our friend and wanted to speak to him, but not having his number, he searched for him on Facebook and saw that he had not been active for the past two years. That’s the explanation he gave, he still has not told us how he arrived at the conclusion that our friend was dead. So, many of us are still confused. We were so mad that we voted to have him kicked out of the group. And he was kicked.
Anyway, thankful that our friend is still alive and well, the experience did teach me something. One of the people we get to forget more easily are schoolmates. Some will forsake everyone and move on with their lives, others will take only a handful but you can never take everyone you were ever friends with. That just won’t work.
On my own end, I have about four to five that I’m still highly conversant with. We might not speak every day, but we keep in touch, and every month or so, we greet each other. You don’t have to always speak for lengthy periods, sometimes just knowing they’re alive and well is good enough. However these days, the fear of billing is what keeps many people from keeping in touch with old friends. I mean, who can blame them?
Anyway, what is done is done, the experience has taught me to always remember my friends, old and new. That way, there will be no regrets should the inevitable happen.
