by Suzanne Reisler Litwin
In 2011 I had a children’s picture book published. The book is titled, “The Black Velvet Jacket”. Currently, it is in a second print and being launched into the US market. The second version will be available in Canada in 2016.
When the book was launched in 2011, a wonderful publicist, Mike Cohen, told me to get busy on social media platforms. He suggested I get the news about my new book out into cyber space. So…I started a Facebook account for myself and for my book. It was quite exciting as I had never been publicly exposed in this way.
Strange and confusing things followed. My errors in navigating my new public self was embarrassing at first. I once posted the same book signing pictures 20 times! Eventually, I got the hang of it when I was told to keep it sweet and simple.
Wonderful and exciting things also started to happen. I re-connected with old friends from summer camp, elementary school, high school, university, and work. I was able to see friends, their family, and share pictures and ideas. I was friends again with old friends. I even got to re-connect with my old students. By the way, they have kids now!!! Yikes, I’m feeling really old .
One particular old friend was a darling in grade 7. We hung out together all the time and had so much fun. Though, in senior school, we found other friends and moved apart.
Years have passed. Schools have changed. We both married and had children. I knew about her and she knew about me, but we just didn’t connect much. We saw each other maybe once or twice a year, usually from a distance. Although, always with a smile and a glance.
Then social media gave us an opportunity to share. We shared pictures and family events. We shared good times and difficult times. The key word here is, we “shared” again. Our once bonded past, bonded us again.
I missed my friend for years and I didn’t even know it. Today, we are re-connected and seeing each other. I want to know all about the years I’ve missed. I’m sure she wants to know the same about me. I want to go back in time and laugh about the silly things we did. I want to apologize for the important times I missed. I want to share again.
This experience of re-connecting and re-bonding is wonderfully enriching. I feel warm and fuzzy all over again.
My suggestion here is not to be an advocate for social media, but to reach out to your old friends in some way and re-connect and re-bond. It is so wonderful to be with people from your past. These are the people who probably know you the best and who love you in that special historical way.
Getting together with old friends is enlightening and so fulfilling. Make it happen!
Call those friends. Set a time and a day to meet. Bundle them and get together. Don’t wait for a reunion. You, re-union them.
I promise it will be worth every single silly story or embarrassing moment. Here’s a new song lyric, “Re-connect that loving feeling…” Hey, maybe a social media provider or a communications giant will pick up this little jingle?
Here’s the update to this story. I did setup a date and time for a bunch of old friends to meet. We got together for lunch. We talked about the past, the present, and we just started to touch on the future. It was like old times. A second date has been set up to continue the dialogue and friendships. More old friends will be joining us. I’ve come to realize that we are definitely older and wiser, and undoubtedly sillier!
Re-connect, re-bond, do it today. It might just be a click away!
Suzanne Reisler Litwin is an author/writer/columnist/educator. She contributes every Monday morning to the West Island Blog’s Keeping it Real Column.
She is an instructor at Concordia University in The Centre for Continuing Education. Suzanne is a freelance contributor to The Suburban newspaper. She is the author of the children’s book, The Black Velvet Jacket. She lives in Montreal, Canada with her 3 children, Allyn, Taylor, and Duke and her husband Laurie. Suzanne contributes regularly to West Island Blog under her column Keeping it Real. Please visit her website www.suzannereislerlitwin.com to read more of her published articles, books, and poetry.