Confronting Bygones

I am not one who bears a grudge, but I find it difficult (perhaps impossible) to forget when I get offended and the person who did something to offend me.  Like this one person--a former classmate of mine, who back in high school made up stories about me saying horrible things about a good friend.  There was no truth to the allegations, but it unfortunately cost me that friendship.  My friend and I did reconcile before graduation but things got awkward after that and we never stayed in touch since we left high school.  Again, thanks to this one person who, at that time didn't have anything better to do but get into other people's business and ruin relationships.

The first time this one person visited the Bay Area, she wrote me saying she wanted to see me and I said OK.  When I see old friends, I always look forward to reminiscing the past with them.  But since we don't have good memories of each other, I thought "well, we'll just talk about how we've been and what we've been doing all these years--that'll work!".  So we arranged to meet up.  I made dinner reservations at a nice restaurant.  I arrived early, waited....and waited...and waited.  She never showed up!  Days later, she messaged me apologizing.  She said she was with a group of people and they enjoyed Napa Valley too much that they couldn't get back to the city on time.  She couldn't call me because her phone was out of coverage.  I understood.  I know how it is to be a guest, to be with a group of people and to be in a situation where you don't have much control of the time and you just can't make demands.  I'd like to believe she at least made an effort to come see me that night.

Now this one person is in the Bay Area again and she has asked to see me.  Well, despite the high school incident which I now have attached to her name and getting stood up the last time we were going to meet, I still want to see her.  I'd even go out of my way to pick her up and drive her around town.  I still want to take her out to a nice dinner and hopefully she'll treat me back with good company and a nice conversation.  

I let bygones be bygones.  Some things in the past may continue to haunt me, but no more traces of angst are apparent enough to keep me from moving on.  I hope this meeting goes well.  I do look forward to seeing her, to seeing how much she has changed since the last time I saw her fifteen or so years ago.  But first, I hope she shows up this time!

__________________________________________

Photo:  Sunset at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo, California