High School Friends

Sitting with my high school friends last night, it's amazing how much information I find that I keep to myself. It's always been overwhelming for me, attempting to catch up on every aspect of everyone's lives all within a few days. So I find myself quietly listening. And I think this is for two reasons:
1) I genuinely like to listen. I like to hear about other peoples lives and what they've been up to and how they've been doing. I like being caught up in the know, and I like catching up on my friends lives. It makes me feel closer to them, even though some of us are so far away.
2) There's absolutely no way I can explain everything that's happened to me since we last saw each other. Especially while everyone else is trying to do the same thing, all at the same time. And maybe it's just me, but somehow I find that everything that has happened to me is connected, like a big web of stories. I can't just tell one story without tapping into an entire backlog of stories, some that have happened so long ago that there's no possible way I can explain it how I saw it through my own two eyes.
If you're not with me every step of the way, you're not with me at all. And I don't mean that in a spiteful way! There's no way that any of us have the time or energy to keep up with each other's live while we are away at school, busy with sports and classes and clubs and internships. I guess it's just the way that I'm wired, that I don't like rehashing old stories that I have no interest in telling.
So instead of explaining my entire life in one sitting, I keep quiet. I keep my answers to questions short and sweet, and do my best to redirect the attention to my other friends. And I honestly wouldn't want it any other way!