I finally met one of the volunteers at my workplace today that I had known the name of for a while, and had talked to over phone and email. When I saw her in person I realized that she looked familiar – I had met her five years earlier.
Our short conversation ended up delighting me…
Me: Oh, I think I’ve met you before! We took a class together years ago at UVic. In Dispute Resolution?
Her: Oh, wow, yes I remember that class. You do look familiar. You have a great memory!
Me: Well it was a powerful class, and so it sticks out in my mind.
Her: It’s all coming back to me now. I think you and I were in a group together, were we not?
Me: Yes, I think you’re right. It seems like so long ago.
Her: You were sort of quiet I think, right?
Me: Hmm, I don’t know – maybe! (laughing)
Her: But I remember that when you said something it was really poignant, like you’d put a lot of thought into it.
Me: Thank you! (smiling!)
Wasn’t that nice? Five years ago this woman and I took a short graduate class together and we were just able to reconnect by chance. I love that. I actually remembered her because she was brutally honest with everyone when some of the class put on a skit presentation that shocked a lot of us emotionally to the core. She especially was not prepared for this emotional onslaught – it came right out of left field – and cried in front of us, asking everyone please not to blindside people like that in the future. It was powerful. She was sixty-ish, gutsy, not afraid to say what she thought. Not afraid to cry in front of a bunch of people she barely knew.
I was much younger than she, and maybe a bit in awe of her because she seemed so strong, yet so able to be vulnerable too. I’d never seen anyone be so honest in a class before. That’s why I remembered her. I should have told her so.
Maybe when I see her again I will.
