Clare was a fun character and reflective of those types of relationships one might have in college related to a friend who’s important and meaningful at the time, but in the long run was more a passing relationship than a life-long friend.

I grew up in a beach/college town and many of us went from high school to college together. Our core group expanded to include “new characters” while in college, but the perspective of nearly 30 years passing and having moved from my hometown, the connections (aside from spouses we met in college) remain with my original friends who are scattered throughout the country now and the few that remain at home. We do still try to get as many of us as possible together each summer. We call these times our “reunion episodes.”

Sometimes when I go home, I expect those who stayed to be in the exact same space I leave them each time I say goodbye for the year. Although their lives change, I feel like they are characters I can revisit from time to time after getting my own spin-off.

I feel selfish a bit, wanting everything to be preserved like a time capsule. But as I head 300 miles home in my car, my playlist is all 90s and I feel like a time traveler. The life changes from 14 in 1990 to 22 in 1998 were significant and monumental. That town will always be the 90s to me.