Goodbye, 0216480862!

0216480862, some random numbers that mean nothing to you yet a whole life to me. This is how  our world works. Ideas, facts, events, ideals some of us would die for are nothing more than a distant buzz to others. Everything and everyone in our bubble is just as important, as true and lovable as we decide, for just as long we decide.

0216480862 represents my childhood. Those weird times when, with no cell phones or Internet, people planned dates or meetings or parties  days in advance and no matter what had to show up on time because there was no way – except for the old fashioned pigeons, to let the others know that you were going to be late. Fashionably late. Those times when the voice of my BF Anca would make itself heard from the outside: “A.G.’s mother, will you, please, let A.G. go outside and play?”. My mother would stick her neck out the window and say yes or no. Most of the time, it was yes.

0216480862  stands for my first crush. I was in elementary school and silently fancied one of my colleagues. He was tall, the smartest in our class and had a big head. It was a winter after noon and the city was covered in  white, thick snow. I was getting ready to go outside and have fun with my sledge when the phone rang. I picked up and a voice that seemed familiar said: “Hello, I am Vlad. Would you like to go out in the park and play together?” My ears turned red and, without saying a word, I hang up on him. We were living in the same neighbourhood and later on I noticed him on the playground. He feigned not to notice me. I was too shy to go and tell him about the phone call. Up to this day, I still wonder if I missed the big love of my life.

0216480862 stands for my mother’s voice. She is 70 years old but has the voice of a young person. When we still lived under the same roof, people would mistake us for another over the phone.

0216480862 is a symbol of my first victorious step into adulthood, of the day when a dear friend of mine, in a burst of enthusiasm, announced me that, despite fierce competition, I was among the 40 people admitted in the fresh year to the Faculty of Foreign Languages, at the University of Bucharest.

0216480862 brings the sweetness of the first “I love you” whispered in low voice so that my parents would not hear me. Of endless hours spent talking about everything and nothing.

I woke in the middle of last night wishing I kept my 0216480862. The landline that accompanied my whole life, from birth to maturity. That nobody uses anymore. Everybody, including my mother, knows how to use a cell phone. In the end  I went on with my decision of letting go of the old and obsolete to make room for the new. Because with or without it, the good memories are pinned to my heart, anyways.