July 19, 2010 "High School Reunion"

I just had a great time catching up with old friends. Some I’ve known since elementary school, others I met in junior high. There were those I didn’t get to know until my senior year in high school, and a few I got to know better at my ten year high school reunion. There was even someone I didn’t know I went to school with that I met over the weekend. I’m sure it’s not hard to figure out that I was at my high school reunion, the 20 year to be exact. A lot of disbelief surrounds the event. The most obvious being that we cannot seriously be 20 years older already. But here we find ourselves, 20 years later, a group of people once bound together by our birthdates, addresses and high school continuing to connect with one another in old and new ways. I saw many former classmates I was hoping to see, but there were many more I would have also loved to catch up with. What a fantastic group of people we shared our childhood with. What varied and fascinating lives we have led over the past 20 years. What amazing perspectives we have to offer one another. How easily we picked up where we left off to enjoy our friendships once again. So does that really mean that the more things change the more they stay the same?

Change is an interesting thing. There were those with noticeable physical changes and those with seemingly none (Nikki who I’m sure could enroll in high school today and nobody would bat an eye, as well as our own Dick Clark, Chris Wright). Physical changes are sometimes hard to take, whether it is a more soft or doughy body, weight gain, scars from injuries or surgeries, wrinkles around the eyes, lack of hair, hair color, the effects of disease, the list could go on and on. There are also changes that are less obvious but impact our lives none the less: occupational changes; living arrangements and locations; births and untimely deaths of spouses, children, even parents; marriages, divorces, remarriages; and again, another list that could go on and on as well. Things are changing all the time, yet many are resistant to or afraid of it. Well, we’ve definitely changed since high school, and we have all definitely survived it.
I made a decision not to long ago to do more than accept change but to embrace it. For me it’s really the only thing that I can count on which sounds a little like an oxymoron, counting on something is in a continual state of flux. In a way I guess that means that I also don’t count on anything, at least not to the extent that my life will be “ruined” if a situation doesn’t turn out how I thought it would. There is a lot in my life I didn’t expect to happen to me like having children with disabilities or getting cancer at 34 years old. I saw many classmates who also didn’t expect things to happen to them like divorce, disease, unemployment, and loss of loved ones. But more than the challenges, I saw the resilience. It fed my soul to know I was not alone in experiencing some of the more difficult things life has to dish out, but also that I am not alone in choosing to learn from and enrich my life with those experiences. I felt the positive energy of people all around, living the life unfolding in front of them, making the best of some not so great situations. Thank you all for your incredible examples!