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Until a week ago, I would still have said 'no'. That good friends never lose touch and only expendable people fall by the wayside. And who needs to find them again, compare your failures against their achievements?

I don't feel so anymore. I think most people from Facebook or Myspace will have some version of the following story to tell. When I was in high school, I had a really close friend. We were so close we came home from school and phoned each other about three times a day - at least. I left Jeddah that year but we still kept in touch regularly until about a year ago when my friend pretty much disappeared. None of the phone numbers I tried worked, no one I was in contact with knew where she was and she wasn't replying to my emails.

Last week, I ran into somebody on Facebook who I barely knew in school and certainly never remembered - all I did know about her was that her family knew my friend's family. I asked her and she KNEW! I took her number and I talked to my friend the same day. She'd been through a lot that year and she'd basically cut herself off from everyone. But she WAS glad that I'd found her.

I am absolutely certain that I would never have been able to find her if I wasn't on Facebook and I am equally certain that if it had been 15 years later, I would have wanted to find her all that much more.

There's a rhyme that comes to mind - 'the more we get together, the happier we'll be'. Social networking sites are making easier what AIM and Hotmail started. Surrounding yourself with a network of friends, old and new, from cities across the globe weaves a safety net for you that will catch you when you fall - anywhere in the world. That's a great boast to have.

These sites are a great place to start if you're looking for old favours to return. Fascinating confessions to make. Discovering whatever happened to that person who'd always said they'd become famous. Sometimes it's just justifiable curiousity that is satisfied when you find somebody that you recognized even though everything about them had changed. .

Finding people you'd lost sight of 15 years ago also has a touch of romance about it. I'm sure a 'You've Got Mail'-esque movie about a social networking site is not too far down the line. When you'd cut yourself off from a good friend in high school, you might have thought it was forever. But people grow up - they find that what made them angry once really makes them laugh now, and wouldn't it be sweeter if that laugh could have been shared with that school friend of yore. If there is such a person that you remember from long long ago, look them up - who knows what sparks will fly? Or better yet, what flame will rekindle?

Learn more about this author, Ayesha M.
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