It's been six years since I graduated from high school and I forgot to plan our five year reunion

Sometimes, you forget where you've come from and feel like just another face in the crowd. It's easy, especially when you wake up and you go through the same routine: Shower, Change, pretend to intend to have breakfast but pretend to forget as you run to catch the bus, the train, the tube, get to work, slave away for 10 hours and then go home exhausted only to do it all over again. You forget that beyond the exhaustion and apathy there's actually a fun person somewhere in there that used to sit in your old self - in a sweet, innocent life before the grimaces and the struggles began: a time that was much, much easier.

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For most, including myself, that time was high school. I forgot about high school and the fun of it all, the laughs and giggles, the traumas that really weren't so bad and the tragedies that came along with it - the lack of responsibility for any of your actions. I forgot about linking arms with my classmates and telling them we'd be friends forever, probably because it's been years since and we're not. It's only natural and it's been long accepted and forgotten: like I said, that was a different, sweeter time.

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So I continue to walk my walk, talk my talk, do my thing here alone in this city seas away from home. I do miss my old friends but rarely have time to dwell over the memories while I'm busy doing other mundane things. I was lucky enough, over the last two weekends, to spend time with two of my dearest friends that reminded me of the fun and sweet person I used to be just by seeing how great they still are. These two have especially come a long, long way from high school and I can't say I could be more proud.

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My first song of praise is for this girl over here who is not not only incredible human being, but also a soon to be mum. When she first told me she was expecting, I almost fell off my chair at work as I gaped at the email on my computer screen "Make sure you're sitting down.... [scroll all the way down] I'm pregnant!" I was speechless and my fingers did overtime typing out the WHYs and HOW COULD YOUs (that I really didn't want answered)... We agreed to meet on her next business trip over and when I finally spotted her, hand on belly, trotting down the Watford High Street, I felt myself bubbling up with emotion... A mum! Here she was, no longer flicking her funky 'do about in the car as she sang along to Miami but brushing her grown up fringe away from her glowing face as she told me about her pregnancy and the baby - it feels like last summer that we all celebrated her engagement and not 4 summers ago, seeing her was a definite reality check that time has passed...

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I was awe of her all weekend... Not only was she absolutely beautiful and glowing, she was so ready for this... "I woke up one morning and I thought, what's missing? Ah, a baby" - her words gave me happy goosebumps, because although none of us could handle this, she could... She was great, shopping for little onesies and bibs while I stared at her bump the whole time. "Hey Baby" I'd shout out across whatever room we were in, "Hey Auntie Thooth" She'd mimick, and I'd start giggling about, talking to the baby about how when baby comes out, we're going out for ice cream all the time...

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I watched her so comfortable in her new role and was so happy for a friend who's somewhere completely different than me... I couldn't compare or criticize because I knew how right this was for her and how it was the next logical step.... I hadn't seen her in six months and all of a sudden she was a mum - what a leap from being just-my-friend... It was great seeing her still the same and so much more of a super human that she was before: She'll be a great, intelligent, caring mother and I know she'll be so loving over the little one.. As will the rest of us - if it's a girl, I've already got dibs on Baby's first tiara, ballet shoes and every scoop of chocolate chip ice cream she gets...

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The second wonderful person I spent this weekend with was one of my oldest and all time best friends... I met Chaz on the first day of the 3rd grade, when he came into our classroom (the reject class of 3 K or 3 M, I can't remember) and we were assigned to sit next to eachother as a pair. Yuck, he's new and he's a boy: I look at the teacher in despair but received no sympathy, I was forced to sit next to him for the whole year and I had to deal with it. A whole year lasted the next 10 years, where some where along the way we actually became friends and I realized that he didn't carry any infectious diseases as a boy (he was a clean freak) nor did he want to hurt me on the play ground (he was actually the nicest little boy you could imagine). He helped me with my struggles throughout school and after graduation, throughout college as we kept in touch through various email chains and long-distance phone calls... Strangely, he was always there for me, in his funny ways and I always knew I had a friend to lean on in times of self-doubt, because he always reminded me of who I truly was...

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I will always be the one who recalls funny stories of when we were kids, starting from the sweet things he'd say in class and how the teachers always hugged him afterwards, to his perfect posture as an 8 year old. Classic story of sitting next to eachother in Arabic class and hearing him in a clear voice saying he wanted to be a Surgeon when he grew up. Back then, at 8, I definitely thought he was a weirdo, but I also knew that whatever a "Surgeon" did, he could do it. I can easily say he is one of the best people I know on this planet and he is a rare, rare breed... I knew it at 8 and although he was stuffy as a kid, he grew on me and it is reiterated every time I think of him...

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When I saw him pointing at me across Leicester Square, my face broke into the biggest grin and I felt 17 again. We laughed and joked around like old times and it did not feel like a whole year has passed since we last met. We talked a lot about future plans, I warned him that I wanted to see him graduate with honours and no less, no brain surgeon's going to graduate from med school with just a pass... It was good fun and the throughout the weekend he'd randomly burst out with "Oh My God! [I can't believe it!] I'm sitting here with Sara and [other friends]! How amazing is this?" And we'd all laugh, because truly we knew that he was the one full of wonder and we were happy to have him with us...

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Sometimes, a length of time will pass without seeing or hearing from people you considered close to your heart, but it's only sad if you when you see them it truly has felt like years and you've both moved on from your friendship in that time... With these two, it was an incredible weekend.. We laughed, we joked around and we reminded eachother of the times when we were together in the past... And what they did was they reminded me of that person I still am, after all these years... I still have a lot going for me, I'm still young, I still want to conquer the world and I still will... It's amazing the impact one person, let alone two, can have on your morale when you're feeling a bit of a slump. It's amazing how friends can remind you of how lucky you are to have such cool people in your lives...

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Thanks guys, your weekend trips meant a lot more to me than you can imagine... I'll keep pushing forward as long as you guys keep throwing me high fives along the way...