Jamie and Kenna, circa 2002
As much as we all complain about the annoyances of social media (FOMO, over-sharing, etc.), it does have its upsides. I recently attended a little shopping event for my friend Beth Jones and she posted a group photo of us on her Instagram. Well, turns out that my long-time pen pal (circa HIGH SCHOOL) just so happens to know Beth (via a mutual friend) and immediately recognized me in the picture! She looked at who was tagged, saw my very obvious Instagram name and commented on one of my photos to let me know it was her, Kenna O’Leary, now Kenna O’Brien. I mean…I literally screamed with excitement. Funny enough, I had actually searched for her on Facebook a few times but since she is now married, the “Kenna O’Leary” search never resulted well. A quick back story, Kenna and I met because she won a ‘zine contest that Seventeen magazine had waaaay back in the day (e.g. the 90s). If you’re not familiar, a ‘zine was actually the FIRST kind of blog, basically a DIY magazine that was then photocopied and snail mailed out to subscribers. Kind of amazing to think about that kind of format now, considering how popular blogs are.
Kenna and I wrote each other (with actual paper and pen, btw) pretty regularly through out high school and the beginning of college but then lost touch. I basically chalk it up to the fact that I was doing the college thing (e.g. lots of partying) and Kenna was working at an AMAZING dream job: being a Barbie designer for Mattel. Yes, dreams DO come true guys. One of the things that initially made me adore Kenna is that she always pursued her dream and never cared what anyone else had to say about it. She’s three years older than me and, as Kenna said in her blog post about us, three years may have well been 30 when you’re in high school. Yet, I really looked up to Kenna and I still remember how excited I would get when I would find a letter from her in my mail box.
Back to present day, I quickly found out that Kenna now has a thriving party planning business and, of course, a blog to go with that business. I would expect nothing less. And, of course, I found a way to bring us back together! I’m working with a new website called WISHCLOUDS (more on that later) and they’re throwing a big launch party for Bloggers this week. I asked Kenna if she would help style the party up and make it really over-the-top (Kenna’s specialty), and luckily she was available. I haven’t seen Kenna since 2002 and I’m so excited for us to be re-united this Wednesday here in LA.
Have you guys been re-united with long lost friends via social media?
Pingback: WISHCLOUDS: When You Wish Upon A Cloud | Queen of the Quarter Life Crisis