Who says new year says resolutions. In addition to the famous resolutions which consist of radically eradicating my bad lifestyle habits such as eating before going to bed, drinking a little too much alcohol, always postponing my physical exercises until the next day, doing my taxes at the last minute, and I By the way, I was looking for something that would really make sense to me. Because, formulated like this, this type of resolution never lasts very long, except to leave us with a bitter taste of guilt that doesn’t help anything.
It was at that moment that a very simple, but particularly meaningful, idea came to my mind: finding myself.
There you go, I wish us a year of reunion. To find ourselves and to find ourselves together.
I think I was inspired by a charming evening organized to mark the retirement of Igor Ovadis, a fabulous professor at the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Art. An evening during which I saw faces again that I had not seen for more than 20 years. It was moving to see us all gathered in our alma mater, to hear the voices and laughter that we have heard so often, to see our youthful faces framed on the walls again. We were also there to say thank you to a brilliant and honest man who, in 31 years of teaching, knew how to transmit his unique vision of theater and his love of work.
But what upset me the most, even if our eyes now happily display smile lines, were the looks of my former student colleagues, or my former teachers, in whom I saw my early twenties.
It wasn’t about nostalgia, maybe a little about the carefree youth and the firmness of my core, but rather a feeling of reconnection with the woman I was in the early 2000s Some say they have experienced out-of-body experiences, but I claim that that evening, this courageous, strong-willed girl, who was constantly on the move and whose ideas were bubbling, returned to my premenopausal body as if to give it a new lease of life. .
The next day, despite the scent of white wine and a slight frontal headache, I felt carried by a tremendous desire to honor this reunion with myself. It’s obvious that I no longer have the same energy or worldview that I had back then. Over time, things change. I have more responsibilities, more monthly expenses, more joint pain, more worries, but also more experience, more knowledge, and probably more compassion for others and for myself.
It’s just that I let certain contours of my personality fade, perhaps to fit into the norm, not to displease, out of fear of failure or out of weariness… Now that I know that failures, especially in my profession, do not kill anyone, that the norm is often boring and that it is impossible to please everyone, this rebellious and slightly rebellious Salomé can once again take the rudder of my ship, and it seems that that gives me wings.
During the holiday season, I also saw images of a Radio-Canada radio show on a social network, The flakes are gathered, hosted by Stéphane Laporte with Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault. These images showed the reunion between the latter and the actor Marc Messier. We see the two septuagenarians moved, a little uncomfortable, and we perceive all the tenderness there is between them. I’m willing to bet big that this shared moment did them a lot of good. Their sparkling eyes didn’t lie.
Whatever the reasons that cause us to lose sight of significant people in our lives, meeting them again and interacting with them creates a gentle shock wave. I think we should cherish those moments when our past is embodied in the smile of an old friend, a teacher or even an old flame.
If life does not put an honorary evening, a conventum or a radio broadcast in your path to force a reunion, perhaps you will have to provoke this meeting. Making a call or sending an email to someone you know well, but from whom life has taken you away, can seem intimidating, but the result is worth the effort.
And if you are the one receiving this invitation to reconnect, accept it. There is something deeply moving and reassuring in seeing that our former colleague still misses the punchline of his jokes, that this former director still looks at us with kindness and pride, that this comrade still has this singular elegance. Remembering where we come from, remembering old anecdotes and discovering that life, even if it changes us, does not erase everything from our deep nature, I guarantee that it reconciles you with the passing of time.
Surprisingly, the day after that reunion night, it was easier for me to sit on my stationary bike and do my squats, more than all the previous times when I slapped myself on the wrist for calling myself a sedentary middle-class girl. slightly overweight. I had momentum, my head was full of memories and new desires and above all, my soul was lighter.
So I hope you meet again, embrace the sum of the years that have brought you here and raise a glass or a cup of tea to the health of an old friendship.
Salomé Corbo is an actress, improviser, author and citizen as best she can.