If you are anything like me then you have moved enough times that you have friends and family scattered almost everywhere around the country and maybe even throughout the world. Being a mobile person definitely makes life interesting, but it also makes it quite hard to keep any consistent relationships going. I find that far too many people have become former friends that I am not in touch with anymore regardless of the impact they used to have on my life. This is sad to me. And I hope that if you are in the same spot is me, that it is sad to you. I've recently begun doing a "person search" in an attempt to find the people that once were near and dear to me.
Most people, when they thing of a person search, think about a formal search that is conducted for legal reasons or when you hire an investigator to find someone who is lost. My use of the term person search is far more informal. In fact, I use it simply as my own method of reconnecting with the people in my life, and I invite any other wanderers to use it in the same way.
The point is simple. I value relationships. I value the people who have become part of my story and who have been a significant player in my story for a short or long period of time. I value more than the memory of them, however. I value them enough that I desire to remain in contact and to keep in touch come what may in life. This is what fueled my desire to start a person search to find each person that I missed.
I began my person search by making a list of all of the significant people in my life. I started as early as I could remember and found myself listing a few teachers from my elementary school years. I made my way up until now and my list was rather long. I was nearly moved to tears over this list because it was such a symbol to me of what I valued.
I continued my person search by highlighting the people on my list that I was no longer in contact with an that I wanted to reconnect with. I then began the long process of trying every possible method of reconnecting with each person. I called old phone numbers, I sent emails to old addresses and I dropped postcards in the mail to the most current addresses I had.
I started my person search a couple of months ago and have had some of the greatest reconnections ever. Do it. Start a person search of your own and get in touch with the ones you miss the most.