Its a hard realization for me to swallow that my life can now be measured in decades...almost 3 to be exact. This weekend I celebrated a significant milestone in my life...my 10 year high school reunion.
It got me thinking about where I was ten years ago. I had just graduated and I was preparing to attend college at Texas Tech. My boyfriend had moved home for the summer and I was relieved that we'd survived his first year at college away. I was excited about going thru sorority rush and living on my own, seeing how I'd cut it with no one to look over me. And all I could think about was that I was about to begin the rest of my life.
Although the things that seemed the most important to me then are not at all important now... but ten years later, I feel the exact same way about what is yet to come...I feel like the rest of my life hasn't started yet, how cool is that! I have accomplished so much in ten years, I have two college degrees, I've lived in another country, I've accomplished all of my career goals up to this point, I have a great group of friends, my family has grown, I have three 4-legged children and one loving boyfriend, I've purchased cars, paid rent, overdrawn credit cards & bank accounts, lost friends and loves, come full circle with my faith and my fears and in the end, I still feel that I have so much ahead of me.
That being said, I had mixed emotions about attending this reunion. When someone asks me, "what have you been up to since high school and how are you?" would I have a good enough answer? I didn't want to pull a Romy and Michelle and say I'd invented the post-it but I did want to be impressive and show that I hadn't wasted the past ten years. I was reminded of how I felt my first year out of high school when faced with the option to go home for "Homecoming." To be honest, I don't remember if I actually went home for that or not.
I was part of our senior class council so I was involved with the planning process for this reunion. My job was to be "that girl" and send emails, make phone calls, place ads and send homing pigeons to try to find everyone who was ever part of our class.
Even though I was involved with all of the planning, part of me just wanted to act "too cool" to go.
Regardless, I went to my 10 year high school reunion this past weekend and all I can say is, if you're wondering whether or not you should go to yours...let me just tell you....absolutely, without a doubt you should definitely go.
Maybe it's because I graduated with a small class of 173 or maybe it's because I graduated from a fairly small town, but either way, I went to school with a group of incredible people. The sad thing is, I just now realized that.
This past weekend, I hung out with some people I hadn't seen since high school and wasn't even that close with in high school. I caught up on the lives and families of old friends and I even made some new friendships.
For those who weren't ready to go home, a good majority went out to a local bar and then even went out to after parties. At one point, I was with old and new friends, in the parking lot near the police station, waiting for another friend to go pick up someone who almost got arrested and then we'd all caravan to the after party. Funny how many times I've done that exact same thing at 18. We even held our breath when the cop circled the parking lot..like somehow we thought we were doing something wrong and then we remembered, we were all over the age of 21.
My friend, Melissa, said that her mother told her that reunions have a better turn out for the 20year than the 10year. Although we had over 100 people in attendance, there were several people who didn't show...including those who still live in my hometown. I'd sent out an email in the weeks prior to the reunion asking for one or two things that have happened to everyone since our graduation. I was so surprised to get responses from people who seemed embarrased or ashamed of where they were in life.
But this reunion could't have been farther from the high school experience. There weren't "clicks" within the reunion, no one was "cooler" than someone else....we all just had a fun time and got along as one great group. It didn't matter how many times you'd been married or divorced, how many kids you had, how many pounds you gained or jobs you've had, where you lived or what you did, what you wore or what you drove...we all just enjoyed being with eachother again.
It made me realize whats really important. Saturday, we were all able to enjoy eachothers company and truly reconnect with old and new friends. I can only hope that every reunion is this successfull.
With all of this wholesome talk, let me also say....there was dancing, eating, too much drinking, laughing, vomiting and wreckless dancing, sweating, cursing, hugging, and my favorite...a photo in front of the police headquarters.
To anyone from my graduating class that attended, it was so good to catch up with you!! I can say this because I actually caught up with every person there...and for those who didn't attend...I sincerely hope you will be there for the 20th!
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