My ten year high school reunion last night was an interesting experience. A bit odder and more awkward than I anticipated; my social skills have grown from those days, but this still posed an extreme case. I had a few old friends to fall back on, though, and my face did genuinely light up to see some of the people that have been absent for ten years.
People largely looked the same, with a few faces transformed by pounds or years. I heard I still look about the same, from someone who looked so vibrant I couldn’t place her in memory. Many people were still in the area, and a surprising number (and some surprising individuals!) have become teachers.
Conversations mostly covered the basics; where people lived and worked, who was married and how many kids they have (the most anyone had managed was two). We tried to piece together the whereabouts of those who didn’t come, which was a vast majority of the people I always seemed to be in class with. Many are finishing med school, settling into new marriages, or in the midst of phyiscal and career moves.
Those I did see were a pleasure; the high school sweethearts from homeroom who got married and just had a son, a few gymnastics teammates who still share an easy camraderie, the Marine who’s traveled the world and come to love the life. A few teachers also stopped by, and after odd feeling of the evening, seeing them vastly out of context didn’t even phase me.
Overall, it was an odd but enjoyable time. It was great to see those who were there, and hopefully those who I spent more time with in school will make an appearance in the future.
Postscript: I dug out the yearbook when I got home to place a few faces, and was struck by the things people had written. There were some kind and really heartfelt comments I didn’t fully appreciate at the time; I can only hope I was half as gracious in what I wrote.
