High School Reunion

In my part of the country it is the time of year for high school reunions. There is apparently something about spring and the Easter holiday that make us want to socialize with people from our past.  What can I say? It is a tradition like Easter eggs and new clothes.

            In keeping with that time-honored tradition, I recently traveled to my high school reunion.  There were the usual hugs and comments like, “You look good.” Translation: “You are holding up well.” Of course, everyone knows that as Shakespeare would say, “Rosy lips and cheeks within Time’s bending sickle's compass come.”   In fact, since the school closed in 1990, Time’s sickle has been busy amongst the graduates. Everyone is asked to wear a nametag simply because gray hair, absence of hair, extra pounds, and wrinkles tend to obscure identities. The changes are sometimes disconcerting.  When one of my former teachers known for her sense of fashion shuffled in on a walker, I decided that remembering people as they used to be is often preferable to reality.

            After appearance assessment, the alumni get down to reminiscing.  It is funny what people remember and what they forget.  For instance, an old friend asked me who my sixth-grade square dance partner was.  My first reaction was to say, “Did we square dance in sixth grade?”  I remember square dancing in fifth grade, and it was a traumatic experience that I won’t go into here.  So I probably have blocked out any memory of sixth grade dancing.

            The one constant that I have noticed, however, is that regardless of what life throws at people their personalities do not change.  They may mature and grow wiser, but class clowns remain class clowns, shy people remain shy, and charmers will forever charm.  Thus once we see beneath the wrinkles and extra pounds, we are back where we started---teenagers just trying to figure it all out.