Good Times with Great Friends... Monday, June 22

It's exam week for the high school students at the local high schools so I woke up early and raced off to my old high school to try to catch one of my favourite teachers -- Mr. Scott.  I had looked online to find out his class exam schedule and according to it there was an exam at 8:45am today.  As soon as I entered the school some random person, presumably a male teacher, popped out of no where and asked if he could help me.  I asked about Mr. Scott and then he sent me to the guidance office around the corner.

"Mr. Scott has had hip surgery and so he's off till September.  Come back then", the guidance teacher told me.  Of course I can't just come back then, I mean it's a 39 hour commute, but back in the day, when I was his student, I probably would have contemplated a trip back just to see him.  I had a crush on Mr. Scott the entire duration of high school.  He was a shorter and more stalker man who always had a massive smile on his face, and he was as passionate about teaching and geography as he was his hockey.  He was what I had labelled as the "All Canadian Guy".  I pretty much took every geography class I could that he taught.  Needless to say, not being able to see him today and catch up with a bit of a downer but it was pretty great to know that he's still teaching at my old high school.  I ended up writing out this massive long note to him and leaving it with the guidance teacher.  The plan is now to mail him some Hulk gear when I get back.  

Later in the evening I met up with one of my long time friends whom I went to elementary and high school with, Cam.  He used to be one of the shortest in the class, definitely the shortest dude, and he was always about his soccer.  He has since grown like a weed and developed quite the manly-man's voice.  Standing in at 6ft 1", it was so funny to come down the stairs and be greeted by him.  The last time I met up with him was about 5 years ago, he was tall back then too, but it still amuses me to see just how tall he got.  He volunteers at a local yoga studio and so he took me there, very cool, but before we went there we headed over to a baseball game.  Several friends that we have in common were playing and so it was so wild to catch up with them.  Friends that were friends in high school have now married each other and had kids.  It's always so interesting to me to see the kids I grew up with walking around with their own kids -- they seem so grown up, so adult-like.  Honestly, I feel like somewhere along the line I forgot to get on the adult train and instead are still playing at the kids' table.    

One of the girls I went to high school with, who was also watching the baseball game, married her high school sweetheart and had two kids.  To stand there and watch her in mommy-mode was so cute.  Her little boy has irresistible cheeks and her oldest boy is just so handsome.  The youngest is a spinning image of her with his porcelain skin and fair hair but her oldest looks just like her husband with his darker hair and long eyelashes. 

It's definitely a bitter sweet feeling to see friends, play catch-up and see just where and how their lives have taken them.  On the one hand I am so happy for them and so intrigued to see what they've made of their lives but then on the other hand it's hard to accept the fact that I've missed out on so much of their lives because of the distance between us.  I know for me personally, Facebook has been kind of like a saving grace for me in that it's made it possible for me to connect with far away friends, many of which I feel like I have reconnected with and become closer with because of Facebook.  My situation with being so tucked away in Korea, a two plane commute from them, means I value a lot of their friendships on a level that perhaps many of them are not aware of.  Moreover the fact that they know me as Amy, before I ever made a name for myself in the boxing community and in Korea, is also another reason as why I give my friendship with them much more of a priority and higher level of importance than those I interact with in person in Korea.  Honestly, I wish I could stuff a whack of them in my suitcase or buy them all plane tickets to come visit me in Korea.  Korea would be absolutely perfect for me if it was filled with childhood friends that know me as me and not the person the Korean media, the boxing commission, or anyone else for that matter in Korea has portrayed me to be, molded me as, and assumed me to be.