High School Connections

Flanked by Two of the Friends Mentioned Below at a Reunion

One of the benefits of face book is re-connecting with people long lost in the eddies of time.  The best part has been going to some of the high school reunions arranged through face book where I end up talking to classmates and observing where they ended up.  I talk with that girl I was secretly and madly in love with who’s now a grandmother, several times over.  I talk with some of the people who wouldn’t have deigned to notice my existence back in high school but are now barely getting by.  I talk with the high school beauty queen who is still gorgeous but who never found Mr. Right.  I talk with the majority who turned into some really nice middle aged people who share the connection of a small town high school experience.  I reflect at the end that high school is only four years but has an immense impact on the rest of your life.  Such a short time chronologically, but life long consequences and benefits.  It’s obvious that some people never leave high school.  They’re prisoners of a time where popularity and physical prowess were the coin of the realm.  They can’t deal with life where all of a sudden they are the small fish in the big pond instead of the apex predator in a small high school.  All of my current best friends were friends from high school – that shared experience created bonds that I truly cherish.  I felt bad that both of my kids ended up going to three different high schools each due to my military assignments.  It turned out okay because they both had senior years in high schools they were most happy in.  Four years seems to go by in a flash nowadays but back then – those years, so full of memories, seemed to last an eternity.