Preserving Childhood

While I was in California for spring break, I went to the grocery store. I saw an employee who I recognized as a childhood friend who lived eight houses down from me.

I hesitated.

"Do I say hi?" I asked myself silently. "Would she recognize me?" "No, she wouldn't. Or if she did she'd be thinking how much weight you've gained."

And while those were my actual thoughts, the last one is not the reason I didn't say hello.

Something in me wanted to keep our childhood memories as they were. I didn't want the awkwardness of the one and a half minute catch up conversation. I didn't want her to see me now. I didn't want her to know that I saw her now. It would make all our last memories fade away.

So I said nothing. Was there any logic to my thinking?