seren Posted July 15, 2013 Posted July 15, 2013 This weekend I went to a school reunion, I had chatted to a number of my old school friends on the internet and had mentally built up a, this is how I think they will look scenario, mainly based upon their avatars, profile pics and names used. I live far from where I went to school, so have not had contact with many since all those years ago, we are all 56, mostly ex hippy types and when I think of some people, it is as they were. Then came the reunion. I had already seen from the forum how sexy shoes and warrior had developed a very flirty relationship, much like they had been back in the day, sexy shoes profile pic was of a towering pair of red stilettos, warrior had a ninja type pic. IRL, I looked for them and saw that in fact, sexy shoes and warrior were nothing like I expected. Shoes was an overweight, homely person and warrior was balding, so different from the long haired youth I had him as in my mind. This was true for a lot of the group, I was told by some that they had taken their online, flirty talk further and had met, one told me she had dieted for months, had fake tanned and primped for a meeting with Tumbling Dice, only to spot him and turn tail for home when he turned out to be, just another middle aged man. We, my small group, talked about how different we all were from what we imagined each other to be. I was remembered as having long red hair, never wearing shoes and being what was called, alternative. I no longer have long red hair, chemo took care of that, I walk with a stick, but still have a shoe fetish. I am still alternative, but the rebel in me calmed down some. I shared that in my head I had always thought of one friend as being an older version of her beautiful young self and living the dream, couldn’t be further from the truth. It was both interesting and sad to watch people trying to relive their glory days, to see how some had taken advantage of the anonymity of the internet to call themselves, sexy shoes, hotlips or whatever and be, on the surface, just another middle aged person trying to be what they wanted to be thought of, or what they felt they should be like or even just to hang onto the last of their glory days persona. The flirting looked desperate, some of the attempts to look young had failed and I wished I had stayed away and kept my memories intact and still had Sexy Shoes down as what she painted herself to be. Now, I will always equate her with the woman who looked like she was trying too hard. I just wondered about why people need to hang onto their youth by the skin of their teeth and cannot accept that we all (hopefully) get older and that the internet gives the opportunity to be what we want people to see us as, rather than what we are. I also wondered if anyone else has met with someone they have built up an online relationship with, maybe even a flirty one and then met and thought the person was so not what they were expecting. For the record, my avatar is nothing like me, I don't balance on the back of a horse, nor am I a circus performer, but I so would like to be.
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