"And then one day you find ten years have got behind you."
- Pink Floyd "Time"There must be some mistake. I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I ended up on the mailing list for the 20th Reunion of the Kingswood Regional High School class of 1988. I remembered attending Kingswood, and I knew that my graduation was some time ago, but I couldn't fathom that it could have been 20 years ago. Never one to turn down an invitation, though, I went ahead and attended the reunion party last weekend. Much to my surprise, I recognized nearly everyone there and eventually came to the realization that this was, in fact, my graduating class and that it had actually been twenty years. Crazy. Pink Floyd was talking about ten years, but twenty didn't seem to take a great deal longer.
"Sherman, set the WABAC machine to..."- Mr. Peabody
I've stayed close with quite a few folks from my class over the years, and to see them didn't feel unusual at all. If you stay in touch, you see the evolution and you are used to seeing everyone's lives changing over time -- you know their spouses, kids, careers, activities, etc. It's a little different for the rest of the crew though -- your mental image is still of being 18 on graduation day, and it's like jumping into a time machine to suddenly try to reconnect with everyone after (essentially) a lifetime has gone by. It's like seeing a friend's much younger sibling years later -- your memory is them as a nine-year old kid tagging along, but then suddenly that kid is a grown man who's been to college, has a job and raised a family. Once you see them, it takes you a minute to get your head wrapped around the changes, but once you have a chance to process it all and you realize they are just an older version of the person you remember. And that's really cool, because you are, too, and it would have been a pretty dull 20 years if nothing had changed since graduation day.
So, lots of catching up to do in just a few hours, but a really good report card overall. The class of 1988 seems to be largely happy, healthy and doing well. There are probably a lot of people who think their class was unique or special, but I'll go ahead and submit mine as well. A really great group of people, and I was pleasantly surprised by how seamlessly everyone seemed to be mesh together again. I especially enjoyed the overall lack of pretense -- lots of people from our class have good jobs, a nice car and probably a big house, but no one was asking. Everyone seemed to have their priorities properly aligned and we talked about families, kids, parents and friends. All of the things that twenty years away from High School should show you are truly important.
It was great going back in time to spend a few hours with some old friends, and I am genuinely looking forward to the 30th reunion. Just as long as it doesn't get here too fast.
