It felt odd walking an old path…

Same but new.

Known but unknown.

Familiar but evolved.

Excited but nervous.

Butterflies in stomach though treading a known territory. This and much more is what runs through the mind just before a reunion. Or call it a bitter sweet catchup, a chance meeting or a planned revisit.

To some place you lived through like the modest neighbourhood your parents brought you up in or the school you attended. Or some one you grew up with like an old flame or college sweetheart, a long lost cousin or a disconnected sibling. You fancied this moment, romanticized the visuals and played the narrative in your head a thousand times. Yet the reality is far from what the mind can imagine. When all your senses engage in the multidimensional reality, what you undergo feels surreal and transformative. Trying to fathom and make sense of it all is futile. Let it sink in, meanwhile soak up the present and reflect when your inner self shows courage and readiness.

It would be ideal to start afresh all over again; keeping the past away, beginning with a clean slate and rewriting the future unhinged. No comparision, no benchmarks and no expectations – best to avoid heartache. And being the humans we are, it’s all easier said than done.

Times change, people evolve into newer beings and places become unrecognizable. But one romanticizes the past. Nostalgic chords stir up the melancholy. Vivid visuals come to life.

Give it time and the dust settles down. A new dawn emerges as the now becomes more pronounced than the flashback. New realities emerge, newer neuron paths forge and the new replinshes the old. And just like that, walking an old path still feels odd but in unexpected, unassociated ways.