Thoughts of LoWriter

The Class of 1998

So, I know you've all been holding your breath in anticipation of the reunion report, so here it is: There was a reunion and it was good. And bad. It was both, really. (And yes, there was some ugly, too, although most of that was happening in classes below mine. ;) ).

It was bad because it brought up a lot of memories that I would just as soon forget, which is in fact why I haven't seen most of my class for six years. It was hard to be back in Plummer.

But in other ways, it was really really good, and I am very glad I went.

I went to the street dances on both Friday and Saturday night. Friday night, I only saw a couple people, but Saturday, I saw about 10 of my 17 classmates. And they were genuinely glad to see me. They all told me how good I look and how much I've changed. One who I'd really wanted to see had brought his girlfriend who is so sweet and he was standing there laughing and I was like, "What?" He goes, "Nothing, I'm just really glad to see you." He's a writing major, and she's a communications/English major now. I'm so happy that he has found someone so wonderful because he is one of those people who showed me genuine kindness when I really needed it, so I feel he deserves the best in the universe and she's it for him; I can just tell. They're talking about moving to the Cities, and I hope they do because they're both fabulous. And everyone pretty much felt the same as he did. They were sad that I had disappeared for six years, and I discovered that I was sad, too. I didn't know that until now. One of my classmates was actually mad at me over it, I think, but mostly, we were all glad to see each other. One guy even complimented me on my graduation speech. (I wrote about what made each of us a valuable part of the class. There were only 17 of us, so it didn't take forever. Basically, I got to get up at graduation and say one good thing about everybody before we left in front of all their friends and family. The guy this weekend said, "You gave the best graduation speech ever. You pegged everyone exactly right!" I'm taking it with a grain of salt because he was thoroughly drunk, but he was still thinking about it after six years.) I've really only seen my best friend since graduation, but I found that I had missed these people more than I realized.

I'm not sorry that I did what I did and left it all behind six years ago. I desperately needed a fresh start when I left school. There were several reasons for this, and I don't regret the decision to leave and start over. But coming back with six years' distance between me and that time in my life has made me see that it wasn't that people didn't care, it was that they didn't know how to show me that they cared. I think they were really all genuinely pleased that I had come back this weekend. I was happy to see them, too. I was happy to hear about their new lives. In some ways, it's weird because some people haven't changed at all, and yet they've changed in every possible way. I'm glad I went, especially because I'm a different person with a different perspective on life. I see now that I have been missing these people since I left.

Posted by LoWriter at July 4, 2004 11:50 PM