Stuck for juicy blog fodder Too curious for my own good, I finally contacted Nicole, girlfriend of 21 years ago whom I found dangling there in two dimensions on Facebook some weeks back. The post drew a lot of comments, some very thought-provoking. About half were in favour if my contacting her again, the other half saying, nah - just let the past stay in the past.

What intrigued me about the whole story is part of my growing interest in how we adapt to the rapidly changing capabilities offered by new technologies.

Twenty years ago, no-one would never have even been put in the position of having to decide whether or not to click a button to re-establish contact with anyone. The process would have been so difficult, so time-consuming, it would have taken on the aura of obsession.

But now it’s so easy, it’s like: why the hell not?

So I did.

Here’s what I wrote her:

Hi Nicole,

West End Vancouver, summer of Expo ‘86? Four months of fun and three months of none? How are you? Are you still nursing? In case you’ve ever wondered what became of that guy who didn’t know what to do with the rest of his life, here’s a short update for you. I quit wasting my time with that awful job with those awful people, went skiing for a while and kicked around a bit, left Vancouver two years later to live in Montreal, went back to school for journalism, worked as a reporter in Sherbrooke and Hong Kong, where I met my wife and where my daughter was born. We’ve been living in Hamburg, Germany for the past decade. I’m still in media and still enjoying it. Hey, guess what? That post-university quarter-life crisis I was going through when you knew me? It now has its own label, website, support group and everything! And you can now - perhaps too easily - get ahold of old girlfriends on Facebook, but believe me: I hesitated a long time before hitting the send button.

Pretty much what I said I’d write.

She answered right away.

Here’s what she wrote:

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I don’t want to be mean or anything but i don’t know you. I’ve never seen you in my life.
I think you must have the wrong person.
I’ve never been to Vancouver.
and in 1986 I was only 12 years old and i didn’t have a b/f.
I’m happy to hear that you have success in your life and that you found the right girl.

I still can’t believe it.

Looks exactly like her, and the age she should be. Same name. Does this sort of thing happen every day?

Her full profile - now that I can see it, because I couldn’t when I wrote that other post - puts her birthdate in 1974, so yeah, she would have been around 12.

Good thing it wasn’t her, or I’d probably have a few jail stories to tell.

© 2007 lettershometoyou