Solace for Squirrels

I've been making frequent trips to Ottawa recently. I'd heard through the grapevine that an old roommate of mine from Toronto was now living there, so I decided to reconnect. A quick email and two weeks later, we had set plans to meet for brunch and catch up on the past 7 years.

To give you a bit of the backstory, my friend had lived with us for all of 7 months before the pressure of University became too overwhelming and she left town. She's smart and extremely well read, but was a complete and utter hypochondriac. When she started to fall behind in her work, there was no end to the medical ailments from which she suffered, allowing exams and papers to be rescheduled, extended, or canceled altogether. She was already heavily in debt, but had difficulty finishing any of her classes. In any event, upon her departure, which was fairly sudden, we were left to take care of her Gerbil, Pip. I'm not sure why Pip was left behind; perhaps she had recently developed a fatal allergy to rodents. To make things worse, this furry creature was "rescued" from a university test lab and had no back legs. He spent his days dragging his tiny body through piles of sawdust.

So here we were, 7 years later. After two hours, I couldn't help but remind myself that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Except now instead of a legless gerbil, she had a two year old child. Heavily in debt and still in school, she talked about having exams delayed/rescheduled to suit her daycare needs. Despite being in year one of law school, she hopes to (re)apply to med school in 3 years and start the long and tedious journey to becoming a psychiatrist (9 years, total). All of this, while in the same breath speaking painfully about how difficult it is to have such a heavy student debt. Perhaps some people just enjoy being perpetual students, but if after 10 years in school I had only completed one undergraduate degree, I think I might start to worry a little.

I'm not sure if we'll be meeting up again, but I enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with someone from my past. Speaking of which, I wonder what Pip's up to these days?