Me (age 20) & Jaidyn (age 22) at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in Canberra, ACT
Sometimes we fall out of touch with incredible people. Life gets busy and we become so focused on our work and studies that we forget to take the time to pick up the phone, visit, or send a simple message. This has been my experience and I’m sure many of you can relate! So please, read my story and take the initiative to contact someone you’ve thought about but have never taken the step to reconnect with.
Around the age of 8, I became pen pals with a 10-year-old girl from Canberra, the Capital city of Australia. Her mother, Lucinda, visited Canada as a child and stayed with relatives who lived nearby my mom. As fate would have it, our moms quickly linked up and became close friends. Although social media and cellphones didn’t exist at the time, our moms kept in touch even once Lucinda returned to Australia. Then, in high school, my mom got the chance to travel to Australia and spend time with Lucinda. Fast forward and Lucinda’s daughter, Jaidyn and I began to exchange letters.
I remember as a child thinking it was the coolest thing to receive mail from overseas. We’d try to write to one another a couple of times each year and send pictures with our letters. Eventually, our letters grew into short phone calls to discuss all of the excitement and hardship of being tween girls.
Then one day, one I’ll never forget, my mom told me that Jaidyn was coming to visit. At this point in time, I was age 10 and Jaidyn 12. It was during the summer vacation before grade 5 that Jaidyn came from Canberra and stayed with me and my family for a couple of weeks.
I’ll never forget her visit and the memories we made! A pool had just been installed at my home and we were finally able to swim. I remember being floored by Jaidyn! She was a competitive gymnast and while my attempts at front-flipping off the diving board turned into belly flops, she effortlessly made double flips every time!
Beyond her impressive gymnastic abilities, Jaidyn was the nicest person. She fit in with my family perfectly! Everyone got a kick out of her accent and trying Vegemite, more accurately put salted trash spread, for the first time.
Eventually, the time came when Jaidyn had to leave and head back to Canberra. It was such a hard goodbye. Although we tried our best to keep in touch, being on opposite sides of the world, we quickly drifted apart. The letters turned into Christmas cards and eventually stopped altogether.
Now, here we are today! After losing touch well before high school I imagined the prospects of meeting Jaidyn again to be slim. But, having completed a semester aboard in Melbourne I decided to travel up Australia’s East Coast before heading home for Christmas. I quickly realized that Canberra was directly on my way to Sydney. Although we’d never chatted over social media, we were friends on Facebook. So I reached out to Jaidyn to let her know my plans and see if she’d be interested in meeting up.
I fully expected her to be busy or be up for a small coffee chat, but instead, she invited me to stay with her and her family. While it had been a decade since I’d seen Jaidyn, I swear she hasn’t changed one bit! I spent the most incredible 5 nights with her and her family. They made me feel right at home and it was as if I’d known the whole lot for ages.
My visit with Jaidyn has undoubtedly been one of the greatest highlights of my exchange. While in Canberra I visited a nature reserve and explored the city, both of which were incredible, but the greatest pleasure of all was the company. Reconnecting with Jaidyn and meeting her family taught me an invaluable lesson. It’s the quality of the time you spend with those who count that matters and not the quantity. Being present in the moment and truly embracing the company of others is what we should strive to do each day.
While my time with Jaidyn was limited, I’ll forever cherish the moments we spent together and I wouldn’t trade the past couple of days for the world! I’d be lying if I said Canberra hasn’t been my toughest goodbye since leaving Canada in July. While fighting back the tears, we vowed to keep in touch and meet again someday and I’m confident we will.
So please, if you’ve ever contemplated reaching out to an old friend or loved one, stop! Contact that person today! Life is too short not to seize every opportunity and who knows what wondrous adventure could unfold!