left behind

people pass by us. but do they stay? if we think about the cycles of our lives, how many faces we've seen since the beginning? i remember my primary school pictures, and none from there remains in my life. from high school, a few remain (and will remain), but from all the friends i've made in the last four years in the university, how many will keep in touch with me in, let's say, five years? two, maybe three? five? not much more, i believe.

it might be sad and somewhat cruel, but that's the way it works. we can't keep everyone with us for long. some people come, we grant them access to our lives. and they stay awhile, make themselves confortable, get to know us. but after some time, they simply go, never to be seen again. it will come the day when we find the old albums, covered with dust, and we remember them. "wonder where she might be now", we'll think. and we'll remember how important were those faces before. we remember laughing with them, crying on their shoulders, stealing a kiss on a subway station. but they're gone, and gone for good. one day, who knows, we might be walking on the street and find them. and we'll recognize each other, and we'll smile, say hello, talk a little about the old times. and then we'll bid each other farewell, promising to meet again in some pleasant place to talk. just like before.

and it will be an empty promise. for we shall never see each other again. and why this happens? mostly because we ran out of issues to talk about. because we met other people. because we followed different paths. and we leave them behind, and they leave us behind, and it's meant to be like that. ten years ago, there was this blonde girl on my class, we were close friends; we don't see each other for six years. in the meanwhile i knew she got married and all, but i doubt we'll heard from each other again. and even if we met one of these days, what would we talk about? or this other girl, who i dated four years ago. where's she now? never seen her since the day we broke up. and i could keep writing for the rest of the afternoon.

right now, a lot of people i know are already fading away. some of them, i doubt i'll ever see again. others are quite close to me, but within one year, no more, they'll be nothing but memories. some of them will stay, of course, for there are relationships that time cannot break or bend. but most of them will vanish. just like we will, one day.