After several rescheduled dates, I finally managed to take my friend and past colleague out for a very belated birthday lunch. As one of my favorite graduate school professors used to perfectly say, “life gets in the way of living.” Today, it felt especially true.
Anyhow, back to my story…
About a week before the planned date or maybe the moment when I confirmed my plans, my anticipation exponentially grew from the day previous. By the actual date of the lunch my nerves were rattled. From the outside, you would never have guessed my insides were shaking. It would be the first time since I retired, I returned to my most recent stomping grounds of my just over forty-year career with the YMCA of South Florida. Although I do workout at a local family center, I do so early enough to avoid most staff. I find myself doing my best to blend in with other members. I see it’s a bit different than the corporate office setting I worked in, where everybody knew me and had some kind of interaction with me, the payroll guy. I have work history with the YMCA going back further than before the birth of a good majority of our staff.
To my disbelief, my former daily parking spot was available. I parked with a sense of familiarity, flooded by nostalgic memories of my morning routine. I parked my car in my former spot and departed the comforts of my car. I took a deep breath, then sighed and immediately I thought of this as a good omen for my upcoming day. Walking up to the main entrance, I detected the building’s exterior and lobby walls and floor were somewhat updated since my last day on Friday, December 13, 2024. When I stepped into the elevator, its interior itself still had cardboard construction flooring and upon the doors opening on the second landing, this, too remained unchanged.
As I stepped out of the elevator and proceeded to the main office suite lobby. It was then I remembered the receptionist was out with key staff preparing for their largest annual fundraising event. The entire office is accessible only by digital key, so I had to find other means to be admitted and escorted throughout the various suites. Beyond the doors, I walked freely through spaces, once holding purpose, now they open a flood of memories. I attempted to ring the bell several times at the youth development suite. Finally, a young lady answered the door, obviously someone new to me. Before I had a chance to introduce myself to her, I was recognized by a couple of staff members. As they came to the door, they pulled me into their arms with an embrace and warm welcome. Each embrace felt like a timestamp marking a piece of my history and a vivid memory.
I was introduced to a few of the newbies, then I was paraded around in their suite as if I was their hometown celebrity. I received more hugs from long tenured employees and fist bumps from those who knew me for a fraction of their time. Here I was introduced to the new staff as if were a living legend. For the better part of an hour. I spent my time sharing stories with them before I was escorted to the corporate office suites. I made certain on my rounds I popped in to say hello to those staff who I knew who weren’t part of the welcoming committee. I hope I didn’t miss anyone as it was an overwhelmingly emotional experience. Any oversight of not greeting those I missed was purely unintentional.
Last thing I wanted to hear, was someone heard I was on premises, but I was thought too good to even stop by and say hello to anyone or any one person. I assume everyone knows as well as I do, this is the stuff juicy kind of gossip that gets blown out of proportion and goes viral in seconds, thanks to social media. Though I mention it, I don’t let it consume me with wasted thoughts.
As I had finished greetings and small talk with a few, my lunch date was ready to go head out to lunch. After pulling out of the parking lot, my lunch date suggested Chinese cuisine for lunch, I yielded to her liking, after all it was her choice for her birthday lunch. Over better than an hour, we spent our time together in a more intimate conversation with each other. We caught up on family happenings, recent vacations and life in general. The social introvert in me enjoyed the one-on-one time I had with my lunch date but I’d be remiss not to say, it was nice to encounter familiar faces for albeit a brief moment and catch up. From the surface, everything appeared the same as when I left however; I know everything of me has changed.
Driving back to the corporate office, I better understood how strange it felt to return as a guest rather than a tenured fixture. Time has a quiet, subtle way of shifting our roles without asking permission. We wrapped up our conversation with one last laugh and before we knew it, we arrived in the parking lot. I pulled up to the main entrance. We both got out of my car gave each other a farewell, bone-crushing hug with an implied but not spoken, we’d do this again, sooner, not later.
My friend was able to get under the covered entrance and I back into my car just before the skies opened up in a heavy rain, as if the heavens cried happy tears over my revisiting, reminiscing and returning to my not so distant past. As I drove away from the building which once held my daily rhythm, I felt a strange peace settle in. The walls shifted, the faces changed but the echoes of my presence still lingered — warm, familiar, and gently fading. What I once carried as duty now returns to me as memories, softened by time and sweetened by connection. I came to share a meal, but I left with something deeper: the quiet affirmation of how the world moves on, the imprint of a life well-lived remains. Though everything of me has changed, I see now that change is not an ending — it’s a continuation, written in the smiles, the embraces, and the stories still told in my name.
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