What happened is that I got an e-mail from someone I haven't seen in nearly ten years; someone I've barely thought about in all that time, except for extremely occasional flashes when my eyes happened to pass across his picture while I was scanning through an old yearbook or something. The person in question was a member of my graduating class in high school, and the e-mail was in regards to our upcoming 10-year reunion.
The funny thing about this is the timing. I've actually been thinking about the reunion in the past couple of days. I checked the school district's website just a day or two ago to see if they had any information posted. They had none--they actually had a small blurb stating they had no reunion info unless they were specifically contacted with it. I saw that earlier this week, and today I get this e-mail. Now there's a small bit of info on the website about our particular class: the Troy High School class of 1995.
The e-mail I received contained no specific information about the reunion itself. Rather, it was just a statement of the intent to have a reunion, and a request for e-mail addresses for other members of the class. I scanned the list to see who was listed and who wasn't, and I was able to provide two additional names.
Of course, in most cases the addresses were listed without names, and sometimes it was difficult or impossible to figure out which person the address might belong to. Still, it was interesting to scan down the list, calling up each person's name and face in my mind, looking at the address to see if it provided any clues to where they're at today, or what they're doing. Probably an exercise in futility, but fun nonetheless.
My parents don't go to their reunions. My mom grew up in a different state, so it would be pretty difficult for her to do so. My dad, on the other hand, is a fellow graduate of Troy High School, and my parents still live in Troy. A lot of reunions are held in the fall, during football season, and it would be easy enough for Dad to drive over and join in. I'm sure he has his reasons for staying away, but I myself have none. I'll definitely be attending this reunion, and most likely any we have in the future. In fact, I find myself looking forward to it quite a bit.
High school is not an easy time for most people, and I'll include myself in that. I don't think I had it particularly hard, especially compared to what a lot of other people went through. Still, when I look back on those days, which were filled with such uncertainty and a painful kind of naivete on my part, I have to say that it certainly could have been easier. Even so, I look back at my high school days with a great deal of fondness. Everything was charged with emotion, and that absolute saturation has been lost in the mundane details of everyday living, or "adulthood." Granted, that inherent emotion was the cause for most of the confusion that abounded in those days, but to exist on such unadulterated feeling is something that can never be recaptured.
I'm very interested to see everyone again; to see what they look like now, and what they're doing. Most of all, I'm interested to see how things go when we get together again. I'm a people-watcher anyway, and this will be great because I know these people, all of them, on a certain fundamental level at least, and because I'll be an active participant myself.
I know there will be people there I don't recognize at first, just as I know there will be people who won't recognize me (I've lost the mullet, for one thing). I also know there will be plenty of people who won't show up, for one reason or another. Still, I'm looking forward to getting together with those that do show up, to relive old times and catch up on new ones. I'm looking forward to seeing the new faces of my classmates, my peers, my friends, and celebrating the time and place in our pasts that we all have in common.
Troy High School Alma Mater:
Oh Troy High, live on forever,
Forever and for aye.
Your memory sweet, we'll oft repeat
The joys of bygone days.
So come all and join the chorus,
And swell the glad refrain.
We'll shout and cry
T-R-O-Y.
We'll ever praise thy name.
(A little goofy, I know, but it had to be done.)
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