Yay, today’s a public holiday here in Germany and I got to sleep in. Well not really but I was sleeping for a whole 30 minutes more. Those and the knowledge that we did not have to go into work in the middle of the week may have made all the difference.
While I lay in bed my mind wandered off and I was thinking to what event we actually owe this holiday. Seventeen years ago on this day Germany was reunited. I was fourteen years old then and so totally excited. Things had changed so much since November 9th in 1989,the year before the reunification, the wall came down. Some really frightening happenings were preceding this event. Back then I was thirteen years of age. I was a happy kid, safe in my loving family. I had great friends. In October the Monday demonstrations reached their climax and each day you came into school another one of your classmates was gone. His family had packed up and made their way through the Czech Republic via Hungary and Austria to West-Germany.
I remember being scared shitless. Always afraid my parents would take the same route, we’d get caught and separated. I had nightmares. I vividly remembered watching the news on TV (West German television- we lived so close to the border that we were able to receive their programs) with my mom and I literally begged her not to go. My mom would calm me down and tell me to relax. She said they had no plans to follow suit.
On November 9th she woke me up and told me that the wall was done and it was all over the news. My Mom, Dad and I all watched on in disbelief. We cried silently. It was just amazing and I don’t think I could understand fully what that meant. It was another four weeks before I actually set foot onto West German ground but I remember every minute of it.
So in honor of this day I will actually have a long think about where I’d be without all the events and demonstrations preceding the reunification. It really means a big deal to me.
…Past.
Why is it that quite frequently people from your past pop up either in person or by writing you an email, even though you haven’t been in touch for several years? Unlike my parents that were born and raised in my hometown and who basically did not leave it apart from going away to study, my husband and I have been around (no, not like that- take your minds out of the gutter).
While my parents have had the same friends since High School and have a very tied bond with them I have friends from my childhood, from middle school, high school, my Au-Pair year, university, my hometown, my first job and my new job. Now it so happens that from each period of your life you will slowly lose touch with those friends and usually one or two of each period remain. Those are the friendships that mean the world to me. Friends I’d go out of my way for to make them happy or help them. You may not have spoken to them in months or even years but when you do decide to call them you seem to pick up where you left off and it seems not a day has gone by since then.
Then there’s people that you have had a connection to. Nothing too strong. People that you barely think of now. Yet they pop up frequently like a blast from the past. After a forced conversation or one or two emails or phone conversations they disappear once again. This usually leads me to ponder about the past and why I have left things behind. It is like those memories leave a bad taste in your mouth and I was wondering if it is just me or if somebody else thinks like that as well. You may like the people but there’s things in the past that I’d rather they stay there without being constantly reminded *lol*.
