Not because we want them back.

Not because we haven't moved on.

Sometimes, they just left a small piece of themselves somewhere in our lives.

A song comes on and you remember them.

You pass a place you used to go together and, for half a second, your mind goes there before you remember that you're not that person anymore.

Someone says a phrase they used to say.

You laugh.

Then you wonder how someone can be so absent from your life and still exist so easily in your memory.

I think that's one of the strange things about growing up.

We keep meeting people who become chapters.

Some stay for years.

Some stay for months

Some barely stay long enough for us to understand what they meant.

And then life happens.

People move.

Friendships fade.

Relationships end.

Nobody necessarily does anything wrong.

Sometimes two people simply stop being part of the same life.

But I don't think that means those people meant nothing.

Maybe some people aren't meant to stay.

Maybe they're just meant to leave something behind.

A lesson.

A memory.

A version of yourself you didn't know existed.

Or even a stupid inside joke you still remember years later.

And maybe moving on isn't about forgetting them.

Maybe it's being able to remember someone without wishing you could go back.

So here's something I've been wondering:

Who is someone you haven't spoken to in years, but you still remember for no particular reason?