20 Years

The OTHER big event of our weekend, other than defying all my mother's wishes and throwing her a surprise party, was my twenty year reunion with my high school class.

A couple of observations. First of all, I do not feel like I have been out of high school for twenty years. I'm pretty sure when I was in high school, twenty years seemed so far away and that surely, once I reached that milestone, I would be nothing short of OLD. And if you're reading this right now and you're about 20 years old yourself, you're probably nodding in agreement.

But I feel great! Aside from the pesky white hairs I pay to cover, I don't feel old at all. I actually think I feel better now than I did when I was in high school. And I've decided that part of the reason I don't feel like I've been out of high school for twenty years is because I don't have kids growing up in front of my face to daily remind me that I'm getting old.

So there's that. A second observation, which I hinted at a couple of days ago when I spilled my guts about what I learned in August, is that twenty years offers some good, healthy perspective on high school. I don't know what it was like for you when you were in high school, but for me, it was this constant chase to fit in, which I never really did, except for with a few close-knit friends. {And thank God for them. They were and are such a gift.}I walked around the halls of our little school wondering why I couldn't fit into this group or that, because all those people seemed to have it all together and have it figured out.

I'm quite certain they had nothing together and had nothing figured out. It just looked that way. Twenty years later, a contingent of us came back together, just for fun. After all, reunions are not what they used to be, thanks to the advent of social media. You don't go back to find out what your friends look like, because you just hop online to see that. You probably know how many kids they have, what they do for a living, and more than you ever cared to know about their political views and eating habits.

But we came together, pulling up in mini-vans instead of sports cars, giving rides to kids instead of siblings, and we spilled out into the same parking lot where we spilled out of buses years ago, and we had a tailgate party with the brick walls of our school serving as our backdrop. There was the appropriate awkwardness, as we all tried to figure out where to start with a group we may or may not have interacted with back in the day, all of us trying to remember that none of what mattered then, matters now.

It's relieving, really, to have that freedom. I remember even ten years ago, rushing to buy new clothes and prove myself to these people I shared thirteen years with, wanting to make a point that I had made something of myself. This time? Well, here I am about twenty minutes before leaving home. Still doing my hair. Still wearing my apron from baking more party cookies. And being stalked by a cat.

Perhaps I should have just gone with that hair.

Ryan wasn't in my class. He was in the class behind me. And our valedictorian's husband wasn't even a student at our school. But the two of them hung out in the grilling section while I mingled with my friends.

From the group I hung out with regularly, only one came to the reunion. Amber and I still get together on a semi-consistent basis to shop and drink coffee and hide from storms.

Most people hadn't changed a bit. Kristen and I are nearly birthday twins, and she's still delightful with an unmistakable laugh. We caught up on our respective jobs, and I appreciated her encouragement on the writing and speaking front. And then we did the "WHAT?!!?!?!!?" face to text to our friend Phats, who elected to sit this one out.

And I got to sit for a bit with Laura and her husband, and their son, who was very excited about his trip to Lucas Oil the next day to watch the Colts play.

Selfie with my date while waiting for group photos.

I'd held off on this post, hoping the official group photo...the one with spouses and kids...would be ready to go, but it hasn't popped up yet. So here's the shot of the classmates, which Ryan took from his perch over to the side. {Thought of it all on his own: what a good scrapbooking husband!!}

{Funny side note: ran into Ryan's brother yesterday when I was out getting lunch. He asked how the reunion went and I showed him this picture. He was guessing identities and as he worked his way through the front row, he said, "Who is that girl beside Kristen?" I said, "You mean the one kind of in the back? Amber." He said, "No, the one right beside her." I said, "ME!" He said, "No, the one right there in the white shorts." Ummmm STILL ME!!!!! I cracked up so hard!

The tailgate party was a bit shorter lived than we planned, thanks to a rain storm that popped up.

So Ryan and I headed to the other end of town to get coffee from the Hydration Station, and Amber joined us for a little bit.

The rest of the group met up again later that night at Buffalo Wild Wings, but we had hospital visits to make and parties to prep, so this was it for me. Twenty years marked and done for another five or ten.

I'm glad I went. I'm glad I had the chance to see friends and classmates, and I'm glad I had the chance to realize that twenty years of perspective is a blessing.