I have just today realized that it is 20 years since I left high school. I wonder if they are having a reunion...Now in saying that, it is certainly no wistful hint that someone would invite me. I think when I moved over here to the east coast I erased that trail... Although I did have a little contact with two ex-classmates before I left. Never had the chance to catch up though. I caught up with another ex-classmate a few years ago. Lots of small talk but no real invitation to partake in each others lives.
Isn't it weird that I went from kindergarten to Year 12 (13 years in total) with a very consistent group of friends but as soon as graduation was over we ran like the wind and that was pretty much that. I am certainly not begrudging anyone for this- I was running as fast as everyone else, and I don't really miss anyone, nor did I ever. Yes there was a whole world to explore - new friends, new experiences, new towns, jobs, study, partners and and and - and whole new people to become. That is just one of the seasons of life.
I have been looking at website of my old home town. It has changed a lot and not at all. There are parts I wouldn't recognize. Funnily it doesn't inspire any soft memories or desire to trek down memory lane - I am just glad to be long gone. And that isn't because the town has anything wrong with it, it is just that it certainly isn't me now, and maybe it never really was.
I know this thought is going 'round and 'round and not necessarily making sense. It is probably more of a memory ramble than anything else.
So does this have a point - maybe just that in 20 years I have more triumphs than mistakes, had more joy than sadness, had many many more friends than enemies, I have learned more than I have forgotten and that I am happy in my skin.
5 comments:
last year was my 20th yr since finishing yr12 and I did not go to any reunion ~ I went to the 10 yr one and found most people were just as bitchy as they were at school!!!!
Ah but how can you remember what you have forgotten? lol.
Welcome to the 'Here After' stage of your life.
"What the heck did I come in here after", that is.....
hey chick...im thinking go and check 'schoolfriends' dot com...i sighned up years ago and every now and then they send me an email...
Mine had a reunion, the same girl who organised (teacher suck up) things in year 10 did it 15 years later...I so did not have warm cuddley feelings for that school nor home town so I didnt go...
As u no i also did yr 12 later in life....i will go to that reunion, along with bella who was concieved there...so many good memories of that school..
hey guys,
...as the gal who spent most of year 11 and 12 lying on my back under a car with my then boyfriend (some random guy named Tony who is still thankfully following me around) and avoiding school and anything remotely related to study, I was surprised as the next person to find myself organising my 10 year school reunion.
Yeah yeah, you can stop groaning now and nodding knowingly, whispering all those 'doesn't surprise me one bits'...
I was pregnant with Joshie at the time, and in hindsight bored shitless, but at any rate the phone bill went up and more and more people were contacted. My friend Kylie and I (she was also pregnant and due 2 weeks before me) tracked down almost everyone from our year with the dedication of a pair of st bernards!
So there we were, surrounded by over 100 people, she just having had her baby and me over due by what felt like 1000 years. I waddled my way into the toilet to be accousted by Ms Bitchy 88' and was momentarily thankful that I had ran into her in the ladies room rather than the packed club outside as she screeched, "my god, look at you, you are huge"...
There went self esteem and I took my swollen feet out went out and sat quietly in the corner, clutching my pregnant belly and wondering why in the hell I organised a reunion of the people I chose to not spend time with 10 years earlier????
Next year marks 20 years, and I have pangs, pangs of wanting to lose weight and organise another reunion to repair my wounded soul, and then I read your blog entry Rae and realise the only reunion I would want to attend is the one of those I enjoyed spending time with then, so here's to the anti-reunion of 88'...
Sorry to waffle...lol
I guess my bottom line is that i don't need the approval of people I haven't cared enough about to stay in touch with. And they can (and possibly will) be judgemental but my current peers are for more important to me, and the ability to sleep at night determines my measure of 'success'.
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