Finding People

One of the things that really amazes me about the internet is how it's changed the way we interact with people from our past. I imagine that people may have moved around less a hundred years ago, and maybe the post office was better at finding people, but I'm not sure.

I have a webpage that I put up a few years ago with a list of "people I wonder about." I've had similar pages up for years. Every now and then one of the people I was looking for finds me. Even without that, I can generally find someone, or at least a thread of their existence after looking around for awhile. I think this has fundamentally changed how we think of staying in touch with each other. The social networks make it so easy to find people you once knew, and when that fails, there's always Google and the other "people" search websites.

I just sent an email to a girl I was friends with 7 years ago. If it wasn't for Facebook I would have had to track down some mutual friend, and see if she had a current address. Instead, it took me a few seconds to find her. Of course, this doesn't always work.

Ever have one of those days where your mind can't get off of something in the past? I've spent the past few days thinking of a day in the summer of 1998 where everything went sideways and it occurred to me that I might try tracking the other person down. I'm looking for Daila Dawn Waggoner. I can't find a trace of her on the Internet any newer than 2001. I suspect that she may have gotten married, and perhaps she has a new name. Anyway, if you find her, tell her I'm looking for her. I'm pretty easy to find on Facebook. Someday I'll redesign the site with a "contact me" button.