Back in June, my friends and neighbours that I've lived beside for the past eleven years decided to pull up stakes and move out to Vancouver, B.C. This was a tough thing for me, not only because they were really great neighbours but because we had developed quite a close friendship during the time we lived next to one another. But, my friends had to do what was right for them. I was quite worried though as I had a bad experience in the past in a different home where a new neighbour moved in and turned out to be an absolute horror. The situation was so bad that I decided to move to where I am currently living. I could only pray that history would not repeat itself eleven years later.
Their house took nearly five months to sell so it sat empty while I watched over it and took care of the yard throughout the summer and fall. There were times when I would walk around the yard after I mowed the lawn or watered and felt melancholy and nostalgia for all of the good times that we had at that house. There were many barbeques, suppers and, when we weren't too busy, the occasional movie night. All of that disappeared this summer.
A new family moved in this November but it hasn't been the same. We haven't really gotten to know them. This could be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as people hunker down in their homes and stick to their own households. We really haven't had a chance to see let alone get to know these new people. Yet, I feel that my good friends that lived next door can never be replaced. Life will be different and it doesn't seem very likely that I will connect with the new family in the same way. Although I am quite sure of this, I am aware of the risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when my friend sent me a link to a short film that his son created for his first semester at the Rhode Island School of Design. I watched the film several times and was really pleased to see how my friend's son was developing his skills in animation and filmmaking. This is his passion and it is so great to see that his parents are letting him pursue that passion. The short film is titled "Present Nostalgia".
After viewing the film, I had a distinct feeling that there was something very familiar about one part of it. There is a bridge featured in a flashback section - a very distinct bridge that sure looked like one near my house. A bridge that I have crossed many times over the past 40 years. I couldn't place it within the context of the sequence of events in the film though so I didn't think much more about it.
Just after Christmas I was talking to my friends and they explained to me what the film was about. It is about their son's coming to terms with the move to Vancouver and the isolation and loneliness that he had to overcome. He moved away from familiar surroundings, his friends, and that all too familiar bridge. It struck me that I was going through something similar but in reverse - I was also feeling a loss and nostalgia for something that would never again be.
I now watch this film with a far deeper appreciation that impacts me quite personally. I had to overcome and let go of some things in my life that I came to greatly value. This wasn't easy to do, just as it wasn't easy for my friends' son adjusting to a new life. Thanks for this buddy - you've given me a new perspective.
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