Master Plans

Above: Peter & all of us at Sister's Sea Lodge, Dominica, 2/14/09.

TWO DIFFERENT LOCATIONS…

ONE GREAT FRIENDSHIP.

As I celebrated my good friend Peter's 24th birthday, it got me thinking: no matter where I was: high school, undergrad, grad school, even medical school, I’ve noticed that I’ve always had a core group of friends.  However, unlike other educational milestones, our medical school group got split this semester as we all had a choice to go to three different campuses (Miami, Michigan, or Dominica).  But even as distance has split our group, we all were in on Pete’s birthday as much as I was here in Dominica.

HOW SO?

Friendship dynamics probably have changed in the last several decades with the advent of new technology to keep us all in touch together. Yes, I could basically be talking about the internet & the phone , but it’s what we can do with them that really makes a difference.  With the advent of the computer came e-mail, then instant messaging, and social networks, such as Facebook. However, now with public sites, such as YouTube, you can send personal video notes and greetings over the internet after, of course, recording it with the great invention called the digital camera.

We took quite the advantage of it. I e-mailed one of my friends, Jackie, to record as many of Pete's friends in Miami saying greetings of happy birthday. During church this week, I pulled out the surprise on him during announcements, by pulling up YouTube on the projector... and there went person after person coming up on the YouTube playlist (okay, excluding a few that weren't church friendly) saying "Happy Birthday" (along with their little spiel) on the screen. The look on his face was one of absolute shock. I swear he never expected to see any of them greeting them happy birthday. After a well-executed surprise party with all of his on-island friends on the previous night, this event wasn't even coming up on his radar.

I can't imagine how people stayed in touch with each other in the past without these advancements. Now I know how much people had valued pen-pal letters & long-distance telephone calls... why? Because even with the tools of yesteryear, it took a lot of time & resources to stay friends and never lose touch. Now, joy and off-key renditions of Happy Birthday can come with a single click of the mouse, and hundreds or thousands of miles of distance can be represented by being 2 feet in front of a computer screen. It might sound simple to a tech guru, but how technology connects all of us definitely amazes me.

Well, it might sound cliche, but it's the truth: It's a small world, after all.