Now that Vee and I are back in each other's lives, I think about how much has changed and yet how little. She's not the little girl with a million questions and I am not a restless teenager trying to cope with life. She's 20 now, intelligent and aware, warm and loving, beautiful and confident. And me... it's hard to tell. I like to think of myself as a work in progress. I try and change, sometimes slip and fall but get up and move on nevertheless. I am nowhere near the kind of person I would like to be, but I'm also a lot different from who I was a decade back. I'm still compassionate, loving and idealistic but no longer naive, effervescent and hopelessly hopeful. In my quest to find myself, I've lost too much of the people I've known and too much of myself. I'm hoping I've lost only that which I require no more. I know I will find more, much more than I have imagined.

One thing about me hasn't changed though, and that is my ability to connect with almost anyone under the sun. It doesn't matter how old or how young a person is, how black or white, rich or poor, if I see a point I will reach out. And I have never felt it more than I did after meeting Vee again after all these years. We talked about everything under the sun, the past, the years in between and a little about what's ahead. There is so much of me in her, as she happily points out. And still, we are worlds apart, especially when it comes to faith. She believes and prays fervently. I do not. It certainly doesn't matter to me, I hope it doesn't to her.

I'm happy and content that one of the most important relationships in my life is going just the way I hoped it would. Vee really is the daughter I will never have. And she is also a friend.

Of course, not everything goes as planned or hoped. I've had to face disappointment and despair once again. I am not surprised at the person who's let me down, just at myself for letting them do that to me again. I guess you just live and learn, as always.