Class Act

Where did 35 years go since High School?  Its hard to believe that many years have gone by since graduation.   Its funny how even as I’ve gotten older, I still remember feelings and thoughts that I had 35 years ago at age 17.  Walking across that stage at graduation, not knowing what the future held.   I wouldn’t go back for anything.  But if I could go back and start again I’m sure I’d make the same mistakes and learn the same lessons.  Each twist and turn along the way has shaped me into the woman I am today. 

Today, 12 of my classmates from 1976 and I met to plan our 35^th reunion.  It was so weird seeing these people after 35 years.  Everyone pretty much looked the same.  It was like stepping back in time.

I remember not liking High School.  I was pretty quiet and rarely talked.  Certainly hard to believe now.  Makes me wonder when I started talking because now you can’t shut me up.  My classmates found it hard to believe that I do stand up comedy since I was so quiet in school.  I wasn’t in the popular crowd in high school, but I wasn’t in the outcast crowd either. I got through my high school years with a minimum of scarring!  I was pretty much in the middle of the pack in high school.   

I had lots of crushes in high school but most of them didn’t even know I liked them because I was so shy and quiet.   Many of my friends were either a year older or a year younger.  Actually up until my classmate Jan found me on facebook and invited me to be part of the class of 76 group, the only classmate I still had contact with was Cheryl Cawley.  Her sister and my brother have been married for 35 years and so we have stayed connected and friends for 40 years now.  Wow, that’s hard to believe.  She still remembers me getting off the bus in 8^th grade with a smiley face tshirt and a cornet case and a Texas accent so thick that I was made fun of for weeks.

Today we talked about where some of our classmates are now and which of our classmates have died.. We watched a movie with footage of some of our classmates in elementary school and it was funny to see that they look so much the same now as they did then.  A little older, a little wiser.

I wish that I had been more involved in high school so I would have more remember when stories to share with the group.  I wish that I had been more outgoing, less shy.  I wish that I hadn’t cared in High School what others thought of me so much. I wish I had ventured out to more activities.

And I’d like to be able to tell all those who struggle now in High School, who absolutely hate it because of the clichés and pressure to fit that 35 years from now it won’t matter who was popular and who was not.  What will matter is that you were a part of something, a group of people who have something in common, a group of people who are ultimately all the same, going through their lives and hoping for the best. 

I will make it to my class reunion this year.  It won’t  matter  to anyone who was a cheerleader or who was a star athlete or who was a brainy nerd or who was just plain weird.  35 years evens the playing field.  We are all just people.  All coming up on that Senior Citizen discount part of our lives.  The hard part is done. We’ve survived.  We can relax now and watch our children and grandchildren go through  their lives. We are wiser and wrinkled and wittier and wider (well some of us are).  Our hair is a little thinner, a little grayer .  We are the class of 1976.