Elise- Part II

I heard back from Elise! She emailed me last week after receiving my postcard. She sounds happy. She's teaching and still involved with her music. Elise is a classically trained pianist and violinist. She had come to Philadelphia to study at Curtis School of Music. She wasn't accepted and instead studied at Temple Univ.- Esther Boyer College.

She comes from a large mid-western family, very German Catholic. Her time in Philadelphia was to basically explode, away from family constraints. I was along for two years of that ride.

The picture to the left reminds me of how Elise looked when I knew her. All blonde hair and huge blue eyes. Complete spaz! Lots of frenetic energy. Very different from my frenetic energy but very complementary.

For many years, I was focused on how our friendship ended and also wanted very much to distance myself from the person that I was during that time. Reconnecting with Elise has instead let me reconnect with an energy that was left in my twenties. Before any of the downward spiral of my later twenties set in. As soon as I became accountable for my actions, either voluntarily or not, I let go of what it was like to be young and unstoppable. Granted the ego-driven aspects of that time have been gladly discarded, I sometimes wish to know what it is like to be unburdended again.