Mists of Time

When you wake up at 3am and start looking through old emails trying to find something, but end up going in a completely different direction…

In 2000, the MIT Admissions Office used to ask for your Social Security Number in order to sign you up for their email list.
In high school, my favorite cheese was “the orange spreadable stuff”.
In 1999, I was really impressed by a new payment service from X.com called PayPal.
Back then I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking and worrying about life and the pursuit of happiness. So not much has changed on that front.
At some point my parents hosted a 40th birthday party for a friend of theirs that involved a male stripper. It was something I said I wouldn’t soon forget. But luckily, I have.
It’s great convincing your friends to use PGP email encryption, until you want to read those emails a decade later and no longer have the secret key. I can only assume those screenfuls of random gibberish hide the best secrets of all.
Sometimes when I was 16, I could be completely oblivious and mean.
Sometimes I could be incredibly thoughtful and caring.
I can no longer remember at what point my best friend from high school and I stopped talking, or why. I have a vague recollection that we had a big fight, that I did something terribly wrong. But looking back at these emails, I’m increasingly convinced that we just naturally drifted apart. I’m not sure which possibility is less satisfying.