Finding Nala

The Lion King was one of my favorite movies. I probably had it memorized at one time. Possibly could recite most of it today given the right ques.

Anyway, I had a girlfriend of sorts when I was in grade school. During recess we would chase each other around. I recall she would capture my sister and I had to rescue her. When I did my friend would run off and eventually capture my sister again.

My friend moved away after a while. I recall being chased around the classroom when I took her picture on the day she left.

I thought it would be kind of cool to run into her all those years later. Kind of like how Simba and Nala did in the movie. Even without the love song and all.

The University of Utah was known for it’s gymnastics team so I figured she might have been going there. I looked her up in my student directory, but there was no match.

I then thought she might be going to BYU, another major university in Utah. Until I could get a hold of a student directory, I did some research on my own.

The Internet was in it’s infancy at the time so I went to the local library in my home town, found an old phone book. I compared it with the current phonebook and crossed out all the names that were still in there. Once I believed I had her father’s name I proceed to track him down.

I recall talking to someone who actually knew the guy and told me they had moved to Arkansas or something like that. Some fly over state at any rate.

I finally got a copy of BYU’s student directory from a friend. There was a match! But it said she was not from Arkansas. I reached out to her anyway. I sent a letter because I was to embarrassed to call.

A couple days later, I got a call. I was shocked and impressed that it was my old friend and that she remembered me. We met in person a few days after that. It was great to see her again.

We lost touch again. I went away for a few years… who knows where she went. Every now and then I did search for her name on the Internet, but it is too common of a name. Oh well, it’s been a long time now. If she captured my sister again, I’d let her keep her.