where has the time gone?

I was cleaning some things out today, getting some stuff reorganized, when I came across some old pictures. I really did not pay them much mind at the time, placed the photos aside and moved on.
That was until later, when I bunped into someone I had not seen since about the time the pictures, I had found earlier in the day in a box in storage, were taken.
That got me playing the "what happened to such-and-such" and "wow! it has been that long?" games we so often play.
The old friend I ran into used to work in the old record shop that I once worked at (it has since long been closed and our sleepy little town is the worse for it, too!). Like I mentioned, it has been quite a while since I had last seen her and running into her was a blast from the past.
We worked together for almost 10 years, but since it closed shop, we have not been in touch. Chances are, unless we happen to bump into each other again, it will probably be as long, if not longer, until we meet again.
It was good to see her and we asked each other the usual questions one would pose after a long hiatus and after working together so close for so long.
After our brief chat, I went on my way. She did the same.
The chance meeting did bring the photos into question, so I got them out again when I arrived home. I studied the photos a little closer and then it hit me! -- time really does fly.
The pictures that were tucked neatly away in box in the garage were taken at my apartment some 15 years ago and while not that distant in my mind, could not be any farther away from where I am personally.
In the photos there are friends that I am still in touch with, there are some that I have not seen in the 15 years since and there is my sister and her boyfriend at the time, which is now her husband.
It made me think about what has transpired in the years since -- I have graduated from college; I started in my first job for the newspaper I now work for; I got married, had a child and got divorced; I have lost the same grrrrl. ... twice; I have moved five times.
Those photos and the chance meeting of an old friend made me think about how little time, and how much time, has passed in just the last three years since my divorce.
It made me realize that it has been dark before. It also showed me that I am still here.
I guess what I am trying to say with all of this is that people come and go and times change, but through it all you stay who you are and you endure.
I may not be living it up and having what I consider the greatest of times right now, but that, too, will pass.
Just like the decade and a half before and after those pictures were taken.
I made a comment to a friend recently that I feel as if I am a leper with this lone existence I have right now.
But I know I am not diseased. I have a lot to offer and I damn near say that some people would kill to be with and know me.
Now, I just have to find those folks.
Cause 15 years is a long time...