Day 6: Call a long lost friend

My sixth task in the 30 days of kindness challenge was to call a "long lost friend."

Two people came to mind right away, so I thought "why choose??"

First I called Garett. We went to college together and aside from a few Facebook messages here and there, we haven't really spoken since graduation. We were incredibly close so I was really looking forward to this phone call. I got home from work and called him. NO ANSWER!

Alright, "no big deal," I thought. Next I called Ara.

I met Ara in 2007 when I moved to BC to work at Radio NL. Ara has a personality that is infectious. We bonded quickly over our love of music. He moved on to work in Kelowna and I followed a year later. He then moved on to Alberta and I to Vancouver. We text quite a bit but the last time I saw him was before the Jay Z/Kanye show in December 2011.

We spoke on the phone for 34 minutes, pretty much instantly going into "what the heck is wrong with Kanye?!" talk. We ended the conversation agreeing that we needed to speak again before Christmas. Ara, if you're reading this, your laugh rocks my world! Also, I told you I'd use a picture of you and I, but it's stuck in a cabinet I can't get open right now because the handle fell off....

I wasn't willing to give up on Garett. I saw he was on Facebook and told him that I had tried calling him. He told me to try again.

We hadn't spoken in more than seven years!! It seemed like just yesterday we were sitting at me place watching movies, going out, and just hanging out. We caught up on our personal and professional lives, talked sports, and had a good laugh about the one time we met Elliotte Friedman (I always told Garett he reminded me of Elliotte Friedman.)

I loved today's challenge. It forced me to reach out to people I think of more often than they know.

It's a great day! I learned a very valuable lesson. If you make a TRUE bond with someone, distance and time can't kill it, it'll always be there.