Facebook #2 Post

Facebook used to be something I just knew about.  One day I actually created a FB page, but rarely, if ever went on it.  I think my motivation was because my older girls were on it.  Once we got the iPad, I visited it occassionally, but it was still just something I had an account for and sometimes visited.  Once we created a Relief Society group, I started visiting it on a regular basis, and now, even though I don't post stuff for the RS group anymore, and I rarely post stuff on FB, I am a regular facebook troll.  (Probably not the right definition of what I do, but it feels like I'm a troll, whatever that means.)  Bottom line-FB is a regular part of my social media routine.  I don't think this is a bad thing.

I am able to keep track of a good friend who has moved away and uses FB a lot.  I can almost for sure count on her to message me back if I message her.  I have connected with childhood friends, and although we don't communicate with each other much, I can see what they are posting, commenting on, etc.  Just yesterday, because of FB, I learned one of my favorite radio personalities, Tom Magliozzi, passed away.  (He's one of the Car Talk guys for those of you who don't have any idea who he is.)  Of course, I would have heard about it on NPR, as I did this morning, and John did inform me of it this morning as well, but I was glad to hear about it as soon as I did.

One of my college roommates formed a group for us on FB.  I can easily communicate with them.  The list goes on.

One day, probably about a month and a half ago, I was trolling through my news feed and ran across a post from a "friend" of one of my "friends".  Doyle Albee is his name.  What??  Doyle Albee, the guy I went to Jr. high, with!  The guy who after looking in my annual, I remembered, was actually the guy I sat next to in Concert band!  Doyle Albee, the very awkward boy from Scottsbluff Jr. High.  Whoa!!  Talk about a blast from the past!

Of course, that opened a whole section of my memory that had been dormant for many years.  I started to remember people, especially with the help of my yearbook.  I ran across JR Brester.  Honestly, one of the nicest guys I have ever known.  You know what, his picture doesn't look much like he did way back when, but he still looks like a pretty nice guy.  He still lives in Scottsbluff, and he runs a bike shop.  (If I remember correctly, his dad had a bike shop.)  I was VERY tempted to call there and say "Hey, you probably don't remember me, but I went to Elementary school and Jr. High with you.  How in the heck are ya?"  Speaking of awkward!  So I didn't, but honestly, for a few days, Scottsbluff was on my mind.  What happened to Jayme, my best friend?  What happened to Tom, the guy who looked like John Denver and was my first proper crush, and who I would have gone to a dance with in 8th grade had my mom not put down her foot.  (I was only 14!  No way she was going to let me go!!  I did NOT want to have to tell him, but in the end I did.)  How about all those other people I went to school with for those 6 years I lived in Scottsbluff?  I actually found a lot of them as I looked through JR's friends list (see what I mean about a troll.  I'm thinking creeper describes me better!  :)  Crazy to say, many of them looked like just a grown up version of themselves.  Some I never would have recognized in a million years, but who knows what people might think I look like.  (For the record, I think I am just an aged version of who I have always looked like.  I think most people agree with that, but I did have one friend who saw my wedding picture and said she didn't think it looked a thing like me!)  Sorry, digression.

The end of the story is that I didn't request a lot of new friends from this experience.  In fact, not even one.  I may someday, but not yet.  I think what I got most from this whole experience was the shock of seeing Doyle's post, and the tidal wave that engulfed me afterward.  Its amazing what experiences get dredged up.  But here's a funny thing.  I remember I didn't like Jr. High.  I felt the typical teenage anxiety about never fitting in, how I looked, what people thought of me.  Having spent a little time thinking about it though, I think what I didn't like was me.  I didn't like the way I would sometimes treat people (I was a teenage girl - not an excuse, just a fact) and I don't think I was the best I could have been with what I had to work with.  Of course, its hard to know what was what all these years ago, but I guess I just hope that should people run across Michele Sollenbarger Rietz on a comment of one of their friends, they would think to themselves something along the lines of - "I remember her.  I went to school with her.  She was an okay kind of person."  I truly have no idea what feelings my name may conjure up!  Maybe someday I'll find out.  For now though, I would really like to know what became of Jayme and Tom!  Maybe through the magic of social media, I will find out someday.