Tonight is my high school reunion. Keystone Oaks High School Class of 1981!! I am excited to go. It is a chance I get every 5 years to catch up with old friends—and, in many cases, new old friends.
Reunions can serve two purposes: 1) to reminisce about the “glory days”, and 2) to experience the present from the perspective of the past. I choose the latter. For one thing, I am not sure I really had any “glory days”. I had some great times in high school and have some wonderful memories, but I’d like to think that I have moved on. I like to believe the “glory days” are now and yet to come.
I have had regrettable experiences in my growing years—many missed and blown opportunities. Thankfully, these are all in the past. There is no time to dwell on the past, when the present and future are before us. Carpe momento!
Over the last nearly decade, we have learned to use social media—we, a generation who had only snail mail and phones with cords with which to communicate. While there is so much misuse of social media, I have found it to be about the only way to stay connected to people I have known over the years. I have lived in many places, and friends have, likewise, moved around the globe. Among my social media friends are a growing number of high school classmates who I knew to varying degrees when I was in school. Most of them are people I would say were not my closest friends in school. Some, of course, were close friends—at least at different times in my growing years.
While there will be some at the reunion who will only have the past to talk about, most of my friends will be focused on the present. It is not the past that is important. It is the memories we make and share now that bind us.
I love my reunions, not because I can relive the past. I love my reunions, because I get to share the present under the lens of a common past. As I said, I have had regrettable experiences, but there is not one that I would change—tempting as it might be. We are all were we are because of these regrettable and memorable moments. Why change the past when we have the present? I like to think that I am better today than I was then (I’d better be!)
I am who I am because of everyone I will see this weekend. I had some small part in who they are, as well. To some, I certainly owe apologies for things I have done or said, but certainly it is what I do today that has the greatest impact. I enjoy the fact that the past is passed. We have all had experiences beyond high school and are involved in lives that are presently worth celebrating.
I just want to conclude this post with an expression of gratitude for all who have affected me over the many years. I am who I am because of you. Thank you!
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”—Melody Beattie