Class Reunion

This week marks a celebration. This is the week of my 20th class reunion: the class of 1989, Laramie Senior High School.

Wow! I can't believe how long ago it was that I donned my cap and gown and sat in that stadium with all my classmates awaiting the moment I would be finished with school. Done with books and teachers and learning. Done with all that high school bull of cliques and clubs. Done with being a child and running to the world of adulthood. Yeah right!

I wasn't done with books and teachers and learning. I wasn't done with cliques and clubs. I wasn't done with my childish ways. But I was done with high school. I was free from that era of my life. Free to move forward and start fresh with a new outlook on life. And that's just what I did, and have been doing ever since.

High school was not my favorite adventure. I wasn't a popular kid, but I wasn't a loner either. I was one of those kids who got along with everyone but never fit into any one place. I belonged to numerous clubs and latched onto those kids depending on what we were doing at the moment. Rarely did my after-school activities include parties or movies out with the girls or hanging at someone's house. I guess I was a bit of a loner, really, but not by choice, more by circumstance. I had moved religiously numerous times until junior high and found creating lasting friendships a difficult task. I was shy, but friendly. I was what my classmates would probably classify as a nice girl that didn't say much, if they even remembered who I was. I was also involved in school sports, the school newspaper, Junior Civitan , Art Club, and DECA. I was active in school, getting reasonable, even fairly good grades. I caused my parents little trouble and worked for them at their store after school and in the weekends. I helped coach kids soccer, and did a lot of babysitting. I was a pretty normal teenager.

Until recently, I haven't given much thought to high school, or all this business of a class reunion. As I said, I wasn't that close to anyone in my class, and none of those high school friendships have remained throughout my lifetime. I couldn't be bothered with going to a class reunion to pretend to be a successful woman in her own right, introducing my husband and kids, laughing as people remembered funny happenings from 'the day'. But recently, I have reconnected with some people from school via Facebook, and since getting to know them as adults, I have a slight desire to attend my 20th.

It is only slight, and a pang that doesn't really hurt in the least, but it would be fun to reminisce, see what people have become, see if people turned out to be who I thought they would, and rekindle a few of the friendships I did have back then but lost over the course of life. It would be fun to meet these men and woman I have come to know, not as those kids from 4th period, but as the adults they are today. It would be fun to remember what it was like being that shy kid in the hall, and looking at how far I have come as the woman I am today. It would remind me that being popular really wasn't important, having high school friendships, dates, and boyfriends made no difference. Who I became was not based on who I was then. I have evolved.

So, though high school may not have been exactly my cup of tea, I'd still like to attend this little reunion. I'm not, but I'd like to. Just to calm a little sense of curiousity. To see faces of which have aged, hair that has greyed, men and woman who have evolved. Happy 20th Reunion to the Class of 1989. May it be a weekend of mingling and enjoyment without the cliques and clans of the past. May it be a chance to make new friends while holding onto yourself. May it be a place to remember...and be glad you are who you are, regardless.