One of my

best friends from high school and university days who sort of disappeared about ten years ago never really disappeared. It turns out that he changed his name, broke off all his Vancouver friendships, moved to Australia and became a super successful financial professional there without telling anyone from here. I randomly saw his photo with his new name. I spent like 7 years wondering whatever happened to him. He was sort of awkward and nerdy before and I guess just wanted to reinvent himself? But still very, very strange!

19 Comments

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Seera Muun

Jul 1, 2021 at 12:52pm

Strange but tempting. A chance at a new life. I could go for that. It isn't even the fear of judgement of others who know you already, it's the clean slate that allows you to change your mind and form new habits and therefore a new persona.

21 5Rating: +16

More power to him

Jul 1, 2021 at 1:02pm

Anyone who manages to pull a Don Draper to get out of an unbearable (or unbearably tedious) life has my respect.

28 5Rating: +23

Anonymous

Jul 1, 2021 at 1:35pm

@Seera Muun.
I lived in a few countries and each country I was forced into situations where I had to pull up my socks and think laterally, to earn a living. I really enjoyed the challenge until I started facing each discrimination. All the salesmanship can't get past the fact that they just didn't want a person of a certain age around, and I sadly had to return to Canada, where I still face age discrimination, but not to the same extent.

11 5Rating: +6

Very curious

Jul 1, 2021 at 1:41pm

Your "friend" went to a lot of trouble to disappear. I wonder how you found them and found that they changed their name.

17 5Rating: +12

Look at this photograph

Jul 1, 2021 at 6:37pm

I saw a picture of Nickelback in the GS once, one of the guys looked just like me! I hope no one thought it was me.

9 5Rating: +4

Obviously

Jul 1, 2021 at 8:34pm

You went to a lot of trouble to track him down. There's no way you happened to see a photo of some random Australian financial analyst. One question: why? He obviously wanted a fresh start. The only thing strange here is why you're so bothered.

18 6Rating: +12

OP

Jul 1, 2021 at 11:42pm

I actually saw his photo on a business association website because another friend works down under as well. Not bothered, just surprised!! I know it is the same person as we were very close friends! Wow this is a tough crowd on here!!

Not so cool

Jul 2, 2021 at 12:51am

I know of more than a few people who have disappeared. Sometimes they are found dead, but many have remained open cases for decades. You never know what happened to them. BC has almost half the cases of all missing persons in Canada and only fifteen percent of the population. We're becoming complacent with the normalcy of mystery. There are missing people posters on street corners all over town, yet nobody looks at them. Who's going to look for you when you disappear?

8 10Rating: -2

@op

Jul 2, 2021 at 2:14pm

Apologies, op. This forum, like much of the internet, has a crazy mix of kind & unkind. It would be interesting to know what drove him to make such radical changes. Was he going insane from loneliness and couldn't take it anymore? Because I certainly know how that feels. Can't admit it to anyone. The stigma is insane.

11 8Rating: +3

Nice to hear....

Jul 2, 2021 at 8:11pm

...that your friend has had things work out for him. He might be surprised to hear how much he was missed.

6 8Rating: -2

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