Fate and Long Lost Friends

Fate is defined by Wikipedia as, "destiny, an inevitable course of events". Last weekend, my mother and father stopped by a craft fair that was being held at Mt. Ararat, my old high school. I suspect it was held in the dining commons or the gymnasium - - either is quite large and it was surely packed to the rafters with people. As my parents passed by a random vendor, my mother overheard a woman say, "If you see Heather Smith, let me know." (you all know my real maiden name, but I'm not a fan of making last names public on the internet). Well, my mother paused for a minute, thinking she must have been hearing things. Then, the woman repeated it, not once, but two more times. Thinking this was all a little too weird, my mother asked this woman who she was talking about. Sure enough, she was talking about me. As it turns out, the woman behind the craft table was the mother of an old college friend of mine, Jen, who I lost touch with, right before Steve and I were married. What are the odds? Keep in mind, this woman does not live in the town my parents live in, and participates in many craft fairs throughout the state.

Now, a little background on Jen. Back in 1990, as a freshman entering the University of Maine, Jen and I were "assigned" to be roommates. Earlier that year I had attended freshman orientation and had met a great girl from Cape Cod over that weekend. We'd decided to be roommates, and notified whoever we were supposed to notify to make that happen. Well, there was some sort of glitch and so, on paper, I was paired up with this "Jennifer" from Greene, Maine. If memory serves, I believe I wrote her a letter and said, "Sorry, I already have a roommate." As luck would have it, she ended up living across the hall from me. Just the other day I nearly fell out of my chair, when I realized that "freshman year" was 16 years ago. Yikes. Anyway, I'm not sure that I could adequately describe Jen here on my blog. Wicked sense of humor. Smart. Crazy (and I mean the good kind of crazy). Adventuresome (is that a word?). Gosh, that girl made me laugh. I have a great piece of videotape of Jen, giving me a tour of her dorm room, and then belting out Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Maybe I ought to dig that out today and watch it. Anyway, to me, Jen has always been one of those people who I've held close to my heart, even though we've lost touch from time to time. There is just something about her that has always set her apart from others in my mind. The last time we saw each other was back in 2000, when I was lucky enough to meet her husband and new daughter. We had lunch at Brian Boru in Portland, Maine. Now, Jen has 3 kids, I have two. She lives in California, so I guess you could say we are practically neighbors.

Fast forward to this week. I was involved in an unfortunate incident at the beginning of the week that, on the surface, didn't bother me so much. However, after thinking about it a little too much, this incident caused me to question my self worth a little, and for that matter, humanity in general. I've spent the past few days feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing, and not really knowing what to think. WhenI got up this morning, I snuck downstairs to check my email like I always do, whenever both boys are occupied or asleep at the same time, and I have a few moments to myself. There, in my inbox, was an email from Jen. For some reason, after I read her kind words, it put everything that had happened earlier this week into perspective for me. That may sound a little dramatic, but to me, it all makes perfect sense. Some things deserve to have energy put into them, and some do not. Thanks Jen, you really helped me out this week, and you don't even know it. I'm always saying, "everything happens for a reason" and I can see this morning how true that is.