Friday, July 3, 2009
A Grand Reunion
 During my first year of university, in the now-defunct Certificate of Engineering program at Mount Allison University, I was among only a handful of female students. While one might think this is a favourable position for a single girl to find herself in, it is a difficult position to be in when trying to find a great group of girl friends. Luckily, my first year was filled with many, many new people from all across Canada and I found a group of gals that I still count among my best friends, even if we all live far apart.
I grew up in a small town with very little ethnic diversity, and on my first day of chemistry lab, we were placed alphabetically at our individual bunsen-burner stations. Next to me was a cheerful girl, dressed modestly, her head covered by a veil. In my very naive manner, I assumed she would speak very little english, so imagine my surprise when I found out that she grew up a first-generation Pakistani-Canadian in a very small town in the maritimes. My small-town ways of thinking were promptly thrown out the window and I quickly had a new friend that taught me many things about her culture, religion, not to mention playing a mean game of basketball and a force to be reckoned with when shopping!
Through the next four years of university, many a pot luck and movie nights were hosted, shopping excursions planned, sour peaches and swedish berries consumed, camping trips enjoyed, and hours upon hours of studying at the library were shared.
Between our third and fourth year, my friend was married and moved to a city quite far away, and I slowly started to feel as though we had less in common. She was moving into a new phase in her life, while Scotian and I had just met and were still getting to know eachother. When her first baby came along, I remember thinking we had so little to talk about, and when I met her baby for the first time, at 11 months, he was crawling, creeping, and it scared 24-year-old me to death. I remember leaving the room thinking there was NO way I could handle that!
Six years, a marriage, and five children between us later, we've come full circle and are both in the same "place" in our lives, and have so much in common again. This past Canada Day, they were travelling through Halifax, on their way back to that small New Brunswick town for a little vacation, and I was so happy to have my BananaMuffin and Spunky meet her kids.
The kids got along so well, and I am so pleased that today, my children will grow up with friends of many ethnic backgrounds, and that they will understand why some people wear a hijab to cover their hair, rather than being intimidated or daunted by it the way I was as a teenager.
Despite the short visit, it's always so nice to have those friends with whom you can pick up exactly where you left off, as though time hasn't passed. And both of us still look the same as we did in our university days - not much has changed. I'm sure given a little more time, I could have found a bag of swedish berries to share.
It was so nice to see an old friend.
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