This marked day three stuck inside with a sick kid, and let's face it: entertainment options for mom are limited. I've already read an entire book, read Dash all of his books, done much of the laundry, rearranged some kitchen cabinets... you get the picture. I don't do "cooped up" well, and I really, really don't like cleaning (and can't do it all day long anyway)...
... so Facebook to the rescue!
Now, let me backtrack a bit. I have been extremely annoyed with Facebook lately. These lists of 25/26 things going around are driving me batty. Through those lists, most of which I've read because I'm stuck in the house, I've learned some incredibly interesting things about a few friends. I've also learned a whole lot of things that I never needed to know. As in, if you still pick your nose and eat it, I don't want to read about it on your adult Facebook page; I have a three year-old at home, so I have enough boogers to deal with. You have OCD? Tell your therapist. You have fears? Sissy. Go cry to your mommy; just don't freakin' tag me. I refuse to be "it."
SO, anyway, like I was saying, I was averse to Facebook for a while, but then -- after reading every post ever written on my beloved Silicon Valley Moms Group -- I decided: hey! I know what to do as I'm holding this barf bucket for my kid! I can make more friends!
And I thought: who am I the most curious about? who am I missing from my list?
That's when I realized that, short of my BF since the 2nd grade, I was missing my entire childhood. Seriously. Aside from my immediate family, anyone who grew up with me in my small hometown in West Virginia -- every last person (except for that one) who knew me before I was 16 and left for boarding school -- was missing from my radar screen. That realization made me quite sad on two levels. On the one hand, there was this small group of people that I really liked, and I wondered what happened to them. On the other hand, I remembered how hard of a time I had growing up there -- how I was bullied mercilessly, especially for being smart, and I certainly didn't want to conjure up those bad times. Then again, I sort of "won" in that regard; I never broke under the pressure, I still don't need a therapist for it, and I learned just how strong and resilient I am mostly because I had to deal with mean people at a young age. (I often wonder how my kids are going to learn how to "deal" in our lily-livered modern age -- though, obviously, I'd rather they learn strength in a more positive way!)
So I started searching, first for the high school that I attended in 10th grade (that my mother had attended before me), and one thing led to another... and there they were.
The people who sucked were not there, but all of these wonderful people -- people who were my friends, who came to my goodbye party before boarding school, who stayed in touch a few years beyond in the years before we even had e-mail -- there they were, on Facebook. They are still amazing. They are all over the world. They are doing amazing things. And best of all, they showed me that I wasn't the only one to leave my hometown to see the world. (I often worried about that, since the college-going rate for WV is just over 10%, which is about a third of the national average.)
First I heard back from one, a boy who suddenly looks like a man, who played trumpet with me in band and jazz band. Then another, a boy who I remember others teasing; he has facial hair plus a graduate degree from a school that I deeply respect. And another, a guitarist with whom I had some awesome jam sessions; he's halfway around the world running his own company, and he looks exactly the same. A girl with whom I was in the "gifted" program is all grown up and a professor in the Southwest. And the list, it keeps growing.
Facebook, I still think you suck for disallowing breastfeeding pictures, and I'm still not doing my list of 25 things... But I heart you anyway, because now I can make a better list, one of people who made my childhood better -- people with whom I shared a unique experience in rural America, people who still care what I'm up to some 20 years later. Living in WV, I always thought that my world was too small. Now, thanks to the internet, my small world is back. It is a warm and cozy place -- and the memories and catching up should get me through yet another day with an improving but still recovering Dash.
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