Reunion Reflections

I spent this past weekend attending 20-year reunion festivities for Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas.

My former classmates and I all agreed that our class had "aged well" (though, truth be told, we women thought we've got a little bit of the edge over the men.  But don't tell THEM that!)

It's tense times getting ready for a reunion:  You've settled into adulthood, you know who you are, you're busy living life, and then suddenly you find yourself worrying that your weight or your hair or your wrinkles or your clothes might be scrutinized and judged by the very people who saw you during your most awkward teenage years. 

What a relief to finally get together and realize that none of that "appearance stuff" is the focus at all.  We discovered that we've all been going through "real-life" for the past 10 years since our last reunion:  marriage, divorce, births, adoptions, deaths, job changes, cross-country moves, weight loss triumphs, injuries, child-rearing challenges, personal self-discoveries.  I loved that we were willing to be "real" for one another; no one seemed bitter or complain-y about life, yet no one seemed to sugar-coat life for a new audience.

And best of all was the reunion of my closest friends.  When we graduated, one of our friends' moms bought us all a little book of poems and wrote inside a list of all our names--"friends forever".  We have a photo at our 10-year reunion--all five of us back together again:

{Elizabeth, Valerie, Gerri, Christina, Andria; 2001}

And here we were this weekend, the five of us together again for another group photo before heading off to the Saturday evening festivities.  I wish I had a copy of the photo to share with you here, but in addition to all the fantastic friends and acquaintances I reconnected with this weekend, I want to say a particular and special "thank-you" to Christina, Valerie, Elizabeth, and Gerri for being my "friends forever." 

EDIT:  Here's the photo of the five of us from our 2011 Reunion:

{Gerri, Andria, Valerie, Christina, Elizabeth; 2011}

If I'm not mistaken, I believe my friends actually look YOUNGER than ten years ago.  (Me, not so much!)

How amazing it is to get together again and feel no different than we did when we were 17, even falling into our old roles and recalling old jokes. 

It is that--and not $100 rubber chicken, loud DJ music, and small talk--that makes a high school reunion worthwhile!