Returnig to high school

I recently got onto Facebook and since then I’ve found two old school pals and I’m close to hooking up with several others. This is so exciting since we’ve been out of high school for a really long time, 32 years. Ohmygawd, I can’t believe I just said that!! 32 years??? How can that be? I swear in my mind I don’t feel any older then 25, my body tells a different story though.

My friend Patti is still just as beautiful as ever. She was always the girl everyone wanted to dress like; she had the best fashion sense of us all. I was floored to find out she has been running a family business for auto repair. She was always certainly smart enough to do anything; I just can’t merge the fashion plate with the grease monkey in my mind.

My friend Bambi is also still radiant and happy. It’s not surprising that she is finding old friends and staying in touch. One of the things I remember about her is how she made everyone feel special and that she was a great pen pal. She is also still in contact with a lot our old classmates.

This is where my fit of guilt starts. Since I moved away from the old neighborhood very soon after graduation and eventually to the other end of the country, I haven’t kept in touch with anyone, except my cousin’s wife. We moved here together and raised our kids together. I’m seeing pictures of all these grown-ups and I’m desperately trying to make connections in my mind to the teens I went to school with, and it’s not working too well. Last night I went over my yearbooks and that only helped a bit. Some people I remember with amazing clarity, others not at all, and then there are the ones whose faces or names seem familiar but that’s about it. Its all hazy.

Sadly there are two I remember that have passed on and that makes me sad. They are opportunities that are gone forever now.

I wonder who remembers me and what they remember. Now there is a frightening thing to contemplate!

Isn't it funny how high school is only 4 years of your life (OK some of us may have taken a little longer but we won't mention that) and yet such a defining time in our lives that it is present in our minds forever after? I had those horrible dreams of getting up to receive my diplomia naked for almost 20 years after high school!! I'm so thankful that's behind me!!