Blast from the past

I've always heard this expression but never really understood it until the other day.  I was in a store and I saw someone from my past, it took me completely off guard, it was if I had been blasted right back to my past where I once knew this person.  I never got to know this person very well but I immediately started to thinking about how they were doing, did they have kids, what were they doing in Lincoln, did they live here? Then I started thinking about her family and how they were doing.  Then it my mind took a trip to where I was in my life when I met her and all the things I had been through since. It felt like I went back years in my mind and contemplated every decision I've made since we met. I feel that this is a very short description compared to what my mind went through that day.    It was crazy!  Even though I didn't say anything to her, I was definitely blasted by the past.