On fifty year reunions.

50 year reunion:
A friend just posted her memories of high school and her feelings after 50 years. You can read her blog here: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwowimawidownow.blogspot.com%2F2022%2F10%2Fi-wanna-run-through-halls-of-my-high.html%3Fm%3D1%26fbclid%3DIwAR0IpPtZjcnBQOoyjA5ccpsI4L_AjNnLHqK_N8_u6K0lgBzl51wofHaGfPs&h=AT30GJUkGJilYvq5WttYOQ2baFCH8aqxKPnuTHqCOXxeyJ-uwHWzVqpEJb4IOKBemd3AN3i_p6gEvnsMCTTUVl9dLn8k1pYf4Eq4wjHMfXryq5oLWPlUG6Z1pZ3h_dzzAuj_&__tn__=H-R&c[0]=AT3erR-cXCBCuniBAXeJTkbjO-ibu-yYkJ3CffvW3Bj7WaftXQTKGnb7-Zlb2oNZUvdkdDzGRsAZJvM49RlDiMlQA0dfJ2avD0WZmFUTru5yjzVGHp3ktkszDFbEDWbSVH_3emyqXFKbRaegSTu45msPLCM.
I loved her story and commented on it. In a reply, she asked if I might provide a guy’s perspective, so here goes: Before I get started, I liked that my friend Barbara included a song reference. At Seventeen is indeed one of the saddest songs ever written. I suppose a lot of young girls, then and now empathized with the song and shed many a tear listening to it. My songs might be “schools out” or “Bobby McGee”, especially the line, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” as those days were at times troubling, but I digress.   These are my thoughts and memories and I suppose that most others will have a different view.  I really can’t speak for guys as we are not one thing but I will tell you this, I was not in love with being in school and could not wait to get out. It was just something I had come to expect to have to participate in, whether I liked it or not, like having to go to church on Sunday, which I viewed as another form of temporary imprisonment. By the time I was in high school being my own worst enemy was something of an acquired talent. Being that my options at the time were limited, I tried to make the best of it. I remember that many of my classmates were quiet and studious; doing their homework (at home, after school) attending class every day, joining clubs and such, and I completely understand if some of them didn’t feel a common bond with the likes of me. I had red hair and really terrible acne; my face was usually is some state of volcanic eruption, but I guess that my size and sense of humor and the fact that I really didn’t give a f--k kept me from being a target most of the time. I remember most classmates as being nice. In the time leading up to our reunion I would often take out our yearbook and read some of the things people wrote in it. I shared a few and didn’t share the ones that might embarrass the writer. Apparently, I was nuts or crazy or something. I don’t remember being crazy, rebellious possibly, but it’s a perspective thing. As much as I hated being told what to do and when to do it, I loved many of my fellow classmates, and I feel a strong bond with a few of them despite the years. Even at such a young age I was reluctant to belong to any click. I had made friends from nearly every quarter of the school, and if some didn’t like that I really didn’t care. Some of the most unlikely friendships are the ones I remember most fondly, and seeing that they have thrived over the years is especially gratifying. I enjoyed every single conversation and every person that I met during the evening. One of the most beautiful things about the reunion and the connection though social media, is that I got to know better and understand many of the people that I really had little engagement with in school. The girls (yes it was the girls) who put together our reunion were incredible. I really don’t know how they tracked us down, especially the married girls. They also set up a memorial table that had the pictures of lost classmates and there were far too many of them, a couple in particular, that I was very close to when we were young. 50 years is a long time and it has taken a toll on most of us, we all spent a good deal of time looking at our name tags and trying to remember the person wearing it. Most of my conversations were about family and grandchildren, and some were about interests but I don’t remember asking or talking about work or careers, save for a couple of times where it could not be avoided. All in all, we held up pretty well and have made our own way in life. A fifty year catch up cannot be accomplished in one evening. Our class had made a commitment to have another get together next year and I will be looking forward to that and also to getting to know some of the people I did not get time to speak with at the reunion, though our Facebook page. We are blessed.  
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