...this town has dragged you down...

Mint chip cone in hand, I was walking down Unionville Main in a brown linen dress and Hepburn shades when I heard him call my name. Greg was sitting with his mother outside the Arms, she had a cappucino. He said in an excited tone what I was thinking with dull incredulity: "I haven't seen you since high school!". In my head, I qualified that to: "I haven't seen you since prom" followed by "I can't believe I went with you to prom".

Prom was a surreal experience in itself, a milestone in which I would not even have participated if it hadn't been for the influence of Pretty in Pink, but seeing my prom date four years after the fact was wierder still.

Tomorrow he's going to Scandinavia, one of those soul-searching missions he was always heading on. I haven't thought about him, well if I'm honest probably not since prom, but if I *had* thought about him, I would have hoped he had found himself by now. Or maybe he has.. it's been four years after all. Who knows what has happened to him? I mean, in four years I found myself, lived myself, created it and danced it down sidewalks and staircases. I loved myself on good days; on bad ones I wanted to show it off in different light but came to realize that now, after years of struggling with my self-perception, I didn't want to change myself.

I can imagine everyone going through this transformation, getting to a point where they are happy with who they are and proud to let you see it. Notice that the transformation was never of self, but of perception of self. At the same time, I saw Greg today and thought "I wonder if you've changed, I hope you have" and I wonder how many people want me to change, or wish I had. I want to know if my wondering what people think at all takes away from my supposed growth?