Published: May 29, 2009 09:28 am      

Not-so-forgotten people enter lives daily

At different times in our lives, we meet people who, for whatever reason, we never forget.

It’s true that in life, people come and go. Sometimes we make acquaintances who we know for a little while and then never see again.

Other times, close friendships stop being close and eventually we lose touch. Life takes people in different directions and good friends become distant.

Whatever happens, there are always those people we will always remember.

We all have someone, or more likely, many someones we can’t seem to forget. We don’t think about them all the time, but occasionally thoughts of them come to mind. They’re usually triggered by a memory, something from our past that reminds us of the people we once knew.

Some memories are positive, and remind us of individuals who touched our lives and made us better people. Other memories are bitter, reminding us of the people that caused us pain.

There are lots of people from my past who I can never forget.

I can’t forget a lot of friends from my childhood. Jesse was one of my best friends growing up. We went to the same church and he followed me everywhere. He was a little daredevil and had a different injury every week.

I can never forget my first teacher, Mrs. Alford. She had a fat yard stick named “Mr. Bacon,” which she actually used on disobedient children.

That was before the days when spanking a kid with a ruler was considered child abuse.

I can’t forget the first group of really good friends I made in seventh grade. We were all hormonal, boy-crazy girls who were trying to figure out how to act mature while still feeling like kids.

I’ll never forget the friends I made in college. We went through everything together as we learned how to grow up and become adults.

My first roommate was Gracie, a girl I’d met in high school. We occasionally butted heads, but no one knew the deep, dark secrets we shared with each other.

Here in Clinton I’ve already met many people I’m sure I’ll never forget. I have lots of friends at my church who faithfully read my columns and keep up with what’s going on in my life.

I’ve also met many interesting people through my work at the Herald.

I’ve learned a lot about Clinton and Camanche that I never would have on my own.

So all that to say, there are lots of people we will always remember. But the question then becomes, how will people remember us?

Of course not everyone we meet remembers us, and sometimes we are forgotten. But inevitably there are people that remember us for something we did or something that happened.

Are people’s memories of us good ones? Will friends have happy memories when they think of me?

Or are people’s memories of us negative? Will they remember me for the mistakes I made and the pain I caused?

The bottom line is, we can’t make people like us, or remember us favorably. But, we can choose to be a friend worth remembering for the good we did.

How you treat someone will stick with them for a long time; make sure you treat people in a way you wish to be remembered.



Elise Loyola is a staff writer for the Clinton Herald. She has been here since November 2008 and she can be reached at eliseloyola@clintonherald.com.