FIRESIDE
The flames leaped and danced before us, a swirling tango of light in a ring of stone. The flames crackled, pockets of moisture popping. glowing embers shot up into the night, reaching out to their more substantial brethren in the star speckled heavens above.
I looked around the fire, curiously aware that these were people I knew too well. It was like the past ten years had not even happened, like we had always remained together. The camaraderie carried a palpable sense of familiarity.
The last time we were all together like this, our lives were very different. We were in our formative years, still trying to figure out what would become of us, what we would be when we grew up. We weren't children by any means, but we also weren't defined.
Now we were mostly defined in our ways. We were teachers and lawyers and laborers set in our ways. We were happy, and on this warm summer night, we were complete.
There is something to be said for the strength of pre-career bonds. The fact that we were all coming into our true sense of identity during those years added an extra degree of importance to the times we shared. Those life defining moments had helped cast is off into the the next part of our individual journeys.
It had been a magical summer all those years ago, mostly because we knew it would be the last. That September we had split up, some heading west, some heading east, and a handful heading overseas.
It was the end of our era and the beginning of adulthood. Sitting here tonight, surrounded by slightly wizened versions of such hood friends, I realized that we had made it.
I had loved some of these people unconditionally. I had shared moments of pure joy, sorrow, and innocence with them all.
With this great fire crackling between us, it was like we had always been. Here. Together. We had drifted apart bit this night had snapped us all together on a way that the years between no longer existed.
I looked around the familiar faces and smiled. We were happier now than we had ever been before. Sitting around this fire.
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