Sometimes we go through life and we make temporary friends: people who we seem close to for a certain period of time in our lives, and then we come to the realization that it was the commonality of the location or the situation more than anything that brought and kept us together for that period of time. Perhaps when only one of the individuals has moved on, there will still be contact between to the two: sporadic contact, but enough time spent at least on the phone that at least one of you can convince (or rather, fool) yourself that this is a friendship that is more solid that reality would otherwise deem it to be.
What I’m saying is that my friend Autumn from library school finished her classes last week and is done with the program. Now we are no longer people who were at the same location last year, or people who could share stories about my second year in the program, like I did with her this past year while she was finishing up. I wrote her a couple of emails the past week: no response back. I wrote her a congrats e-card when she finished up: though she read it (I got one of those receipts that says it was “opened”), I got no response. Well, she was finishing up her final papers, that’s understandable.
I tried calling her just a little while ago. Her phone has been disconnected. She’s moved: gone back home, and left no forwarding number or address. And just like that, it’s probably over. I had thought that maybe she would come visit me in New York City at some point. I would show her around where I work. We’d hang out. Not quite like the old days, but some facsimile thereof. But once again, it seems this may have been a temporary friendship existing because of time and space, and not as much by mutual interests as I had thought. Maybe she’ll get in contact with me again by email at some point. But right now I’m doubting it: No Autumn in New York, I guess.
Bye, Autumn.