Reentering Salvageable Friendships

Sabrina Sourjah
5 min readAug 24, 2021

Can we ever become friends again if we’ve missed so much of each other’s lives?

Photo by Gemma Chua-Tran on Unsplash

I was washing dishes manually on a Sunday morning after a dinner party the previous night. I have always found washing dishes therapeutic.

I’ll wash another pink plate, and another, and another. I can’t believe that my guests from yesterday washed their dishes with food particles still straining.

Perhaps another plate?

Estranged Friendships

But time is ticking, and New Zealand will go to sleep soon. Am I postponing calling her although I promised I’d call her over the weekend? Maybe.

Where do you really start off when you haven’t spoken in ten years? What do you even say? How do you reenter friendships that have weeds strewn all over? Do you apologize for your absence? Do you question their absence? Do you mention what has happened while they were away? If so, how much is the right amount to mention without seeming like you’re all about yourself? How much emotion should you share so that they feel guilty about ignoring you for so long? And how much is enough to reignite the friendship?

They may have undergone subtle and obscure changes that you may or may not spot. Do they still have that sparkle in their eyes? Do they still love their…

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