Reunion reflections...

After my 30th high school reunion, I drove from Warsaw, Indiana, to Wooster, Ohio, and I dropped Chelsea Meagan off at tennis camp. With over eight hours on the road, I had lots of time to think... The reunion was awesome because it brought Corinne, Carolyn, Michelle, Shari, and I back together for the first time since my wedding at Burr Oak in 1999. Beyond that small group, though, I was so happy to reconnect with others from our class, and I was struck by the unique opportunity that reunions afford us to share each others' life journeys, not just during our school years but beyond.

In some ways, the reunion seemed like "Brigadoon" (a play in which the characters of a small town come to life for one day every 100 years). For most of us (especially those who have long since departed from Warsaw), our high school peers come to life only during reunions. We drop in on their lives once every five years, reconnect, and then allow the memories and people to drift asleep until we drive into town for another reunion.

Unlike Brigadoon, though, classmates don't collectively fall asleep for those five years between reunions. Over the years, we have earned degrees, experienced marriage (and sometimes divorce), suffered loss of loved ones, pursued careers, raised children, and, well, changed beyond the wrinkles that now crease our faces. In that way, perhaps, a platonic version of the play, "Same Time Next Year," compares more adequately. Even though we leave reunions only to return five years later, our peers don't stay static, and our quest during the short week-end involves revealing the highlights of our own lives and getting "current" with the most important details about our peers.

As in "Same Time," I think that most of us feel grateful for the moments that we get to have together. No, most of us don't live in the same place, and, no, our lives no longer intertwine directly. Yes, we celebrate our special connection that, some 30 years ago, we grew up together. We performed in plays, sang in the choir, played in the band, competed in sports, danced, drank, and, overall, experienced the drama of high school that many of our own children confront now. Those events so long ago served as a foundation for what we've done since. As such, even if we haven't been together much in the past 30 years, we still understand each other much more easily than people who haven't been with us "since the start." We know the "backstory;" we "get it."

My 15 year old is addicted to the movie, "Now and Then," and she insisted on watching it as we drove to Warsaw for the reunion. Ah, the perfect precursor for a reunion... If you haven't seen it, check it out before your own next reunion. Now, as we did then, we still get to share bits of each others' lives. If you're reading this post as part of the WCHS Class of 1980 and you attended part of the reunion week-end, thank you for allowing us to reconnect with you, to continue being part of your life's journey. If you're part of our class but you didn't come back, please let us know what's up on facebook or send messages to the reunion committee. Even if you weren't there, you were missed AND discussed. We remembered you, thought about you, wondered about you, because you are inexplicably part of us. We can't remove you from our future any more than we can dismiss you from our past.

To the WCHS Class of 1980, thanks for the memories. I'm grateful for being part of your life story, and I appreciate your role in my own.

Christie