I first got the account in an attempt to keep in touch with friends overseas. And conveniently found a whole plethora of old school/ tuition buddies I'd been trying to look up for ages. Needless to say, I'm now an addict.
Now I'm sure if you have an account, you've probably had many people you either don't know (with no mutual friends either)/ don't like or talk to in real life try to add you as a friend. I find this a pathetic effort to boost their flagging social lives and popularity and thus always click Ignore. Sometimes more than once before they get the message.
So anyway this guy from Cairo adds me, but with a message: Jan, old pen pals?
I'm intrigued. After some thought, it comes back to me.
When we were in Standard 6, there was this whole pen pal craze going on. You paid about MYR3 and applied for one. You'd give your personal details and three choices of countries. Having been exposed to too much MTV and Hollywood, I'd put USA as my top choice (People I meet while travelling often think I'm from the States. I blame Mark for my "American twang".).
So when I got my Egyptian pal, I was a little disappointed. What could I possibly have in common with him? He probably lived in a pyramid and rode his camel to school (yes, I was an ignorant little 12 year old). Nonetheless I decided to get my money's worth and wrote him a letter.
I never got a reply and eventually forgot all about it.
So now, 11 years later I finally get to contact him.
Aside from this, I'd recently gotten in touch with a former classmate who'd had a brief, unpleasant transit in our elitist high school. I've just discovered she now lives in Gold Coast (where I'm moving next month) and is a mother of one. In our recent exchanges she's shown me the grace I did not possess at 15, when I chose popularity over loyalty.Perhaps when we do meet up, I will find the courage to apologize.
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