It was 2019 and I had given over 1,000 presentations in which I had shared the story of the soda can. With each telling of the story I would wonder what happened to that friend. The last time I saw him was at the AMA Supercross race in 2000. His name is rather common so each time I tried a social media search I came up with nothing.
For some reason, while being stuck in an airport on a layover in February 2019, I did a more extensive search and one search led to another which led to a LinkedIn search and I had a hit, or at least I thought I did.
I sent a message asking if he were the person I knew that lived in South County and he responded by referencing a game we had played back in the 90's. Now that I knew it was him, I told him that, "at least 1,000 times I've told the story about the soda can." He responded a bit perplexed and said, "can? Soda can? I don't know anything about that. I drank a lot of soda as a kid."
His response proved the very point I had told for so long in that what is irrelevant to one, may have meant the world to another.
It was a surreal moment for me. I had tried for almost a decade to find him online and when I did the response wasn't what I had thought it would be. There wasn't even a question as to why that story had been told so much.
Moving forward in presentations, when those become common again, I think I have to use this follow up story as what was worthy of a chapter in my book wasn't remembered at all by him. And he knew that can had stayed on my dresser, but as time passes things like this are easily forgotten by some. For others? Well, when I eclipse 2,000 presentations, I might drop him a line again and let him know, "Remember that time you didn't remember the soda can? Yeah, I've told that story now 1,000 times."
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