(un)burning bridges

when i walked away from the things in the past, i thot that whatever connection i had with it is severed.
like burning bridges. you can no longer reach the place, though it's still there.
this is what my thinking was, about 15 years ago when i left my first job.
it's finished. the book is closed. people will forget me as i forget them.
my life was moving forward, and they would not be part of it.

how so wrong i was.

past is not something you can ditch, even when the bridge is no longer there.
it is very much still there.
some people don't simply forget you, as when your life and their live collided, you made yourself part of their life. whether you are a significant part of it or not, it's irrelevant. you were there, being a part of their vast reference of life.

this is a realization that came to me just recently, when someone from the past was looking for me.
i thot first, something is happening to him. something not quite good. why else would he be looking for me.
turned out, it was for the memory's sake. for the past. that i made it part of his life.
and that i should not run away but be part of his present too, albeit in a very dim way.

so now i'm unburning my bridges. trying to reach those distant place.
because what was there made me what i am today.
what i met there is part of my life reference today.

and you know what? it always made my day to know that people remember me.

so perhaps it would make their day if i remember them, too.