An old friend of mine from kindergarten sent a photo to me yesterday… of me. There’s nothing special about the picture. He had taken it during a visit to our place one summer. We had stayed in touch for a few years after I moved from Edmonton. Every summer his family would come to the west coast and he would stay with us for a long weekend or so.

This was summer of 1990. I was 14 at the time of this photo. In my hands is a Sega Genesis controller. I remember he and our other friend had stayed over for about five days. The three of us played Sega nonstop trying to beat Phantasy Star 2. By nonstop I mean we pulled all-nighters taking turns sleeping trying to get further in the game. During the days we would take some breaks and go swimming. We had a good long distance friendship that lasted about a decade. Then high school set in and our summers changed.

This candid picture of me is mind blowing as well. My son looks and acts exactly the same way I did. I’ve seen him with friends at sleepovers and how they play video games much in the same manner. Not to mention how much fun they have in the swimming pool.

It was nice that my old friend sent me that photo randomly. It goes to show that people can still think of you and the good times that were once had. It’s been years since he and I hung out. The three of us met up about five or six years ago. It was a nice evening of beers and memories. Perhaps we will get together once or twice more over the years.

Life just gets busy sometimes and memories are all we have. I’ll take those innocent and happy memories any day.