And then finally I saw one pulling in and ran to the gate. Through the glass doors and the window of the bus I could see a girl with short, blonde hair that could only mean it was my girlfriend. I pushed through the crowd, almost in slow motion. My only thought was to get to her, to hug her for the first time in two weeks.
I got to the front, my smile growing with every step. As she came out the door she looked up and... it wasn't her. No, it was some other girl and I was standing there, a dopey smile still on my face because my face muscles still hadn't registered what my brain had; this wasn't the bus from Montreal that my girlfriend was on.
Nope, life isn't a Nicholas Sparks book, but the reunion between my girlfriend and I did come, about 20 minutes later, and it didn't matter that there was no corny soundtrack or slow motion run towards each other through the rain or gently swaying tulips in an open meadow.
What really mattered is that we were together again and that dopey smile was back on my face as we hugged and talked about her trip and laughed while we ate greasy burgers together as a welcome back to North American cuisine.
What mattered was not how it happened, but that it happened.
I'm sure everyone has had a reunion like that. Maybe not with so much hugging or the smell of diesel fumes spinning around, but one where you felt like the world was a picture hanging slightly off centre and had been straightened up again with the reunion.
It's always great to see your family again, or friends you haven't talked to in a while or a mentor that shaped your life's path and it's because when you're with those people again everything makes a little more sense, everything seems a little safer and you feel more confident. It's because you have the same memories, a shared history together, through good and bad, which makes you smile or laugh or even just makes you stronger on the inside. It's because being with those people makes you a better person and they feel the same way.
So I am grateful for reunions. I am grateful that I was reunited with my girlfriend yesterday. I am grateful for all those time in a year when I see those I love again after being away and the way my face lights up when we have a reunion. I am grateful that reunions bring people together, even after years of being apart sometimes. And I am grateful that they aren't always fairytale perfect, because that means each one is special in a way, each one is something to reminisce about at the next reunion.
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