2023-09-23: after that

yesterday, we went to a little get-together at our friend's widow's house. a lot of people gathered in the backyard under a particularly grey sky. a few drops of rain, but nothing too bad. we stayed for a bit, had some snacks. i had a beer and we chatted with the people we knew, cooed at a friend's very cute toddler, then went for supper on the way home.

the supper being at a generally mediocre place near our house, but it's close, and while the food isn't great, it isn't bad, either. it just...is. so she ordered a burger and i ordered a curry and we just sorta sat and talked for a while.

we got talking about the 90s and then i mentioned that i didn't have a lot of memories of high school; far more from university, and even from elementary school before that. and she said, i wonder if that's related to..., perhaps not wanting to name it, but i understood, said yeah, i think it was. mentioned that it wasn't until university that my life seemed to open up, seemed to be something that i might actually have a say in. and she mentioned that for her, that was high school: that she found her best friend, and her people, generally, and that it was overall just good, the way university would be for me, later.

so then i broached the question, whether she would say that it was a happy time for her. and she said it was, understanding what i was really asking about. if there had been anything like; anyone like; and there wasn't. it had been ordinary. it had been good. what it should be for everyone.

journal