10 Years

My 10 year high school reunion is tonight. I'm excited to see and talk to some of my classmates that I literally haven't seen or spoken to since graduating in June of 2000. My graduating class of 363 wasn't too clique-y. For the most part, we all got along regardless of social standing. I wasn't popular in high school, but I wasn't unpopular either. I had a wonderful group of friends and we stuck together-- most of us connected by shared interests in band, choir and theater. Facebook and blogging have allowed a lot of us to reconnect and to get glimpses into one another's lives. But Facebook and blogs are obviously poor substitutes for face-to-face conversation.

I thought that reaching this 10 years post-high school mark would make me feel old. But it really doesn't. Instead, it makes me reflect on how many things change in just a decade. When I started college, I didn't have a cell phone. Now they're everywhere and I'd say about 80% of my 8th grade students have them. My roommate and I had a TV/VCR combo our freshmen and sophomore years-- DVDs were only watched on our computers. I did know I wanted to teach English, so that didn't change. I thought I'd want to teach high school (and somewhere down the road, I will make the jump to teach the upper grades), but ended up loving teaching middle school and am happy there for now. At one point in college I was convinced I was going to marry a guy I was dating. Nope. Met Eric, fell in love, and married him instead. When we first got married, I wasn't sure I wanted kids. Then I didn't want kids until we turned 30. Then I didn't want kids until we'd been married at least five years. But Cate was born about 3.5 years into our marriage, I'm pregnant with Brennan, and I won't be 30 until April of 2012. Who knew I'd actually go on to get a Master's degree so soon after graduating college...it wasn't part of the plan, but it worked out and I did it. I swore I'd never own a minivan and I do. We said this house was a "five year house," but we're still here and will be for at least a couple more. And we have no intentions of moving out to the burbs-- for now (but clearly, things can change as this post shows). I hated running but have managed to somehow complete one full marathon, two half marathons, and several 10K and 5K races since leaving high school. My faith has grown stronger, my taste in clothes is still pretty classic, and I still know every word to our high school alma mater (mostly because I had to sing it before every home football game-- yes, our marching band sung the alma mater).

No, instead I think 10 years makes me excited. I'm excited to see where my classmates have been in the last 10 years and to talk about where we hope to be 10 years from now. It makes me excited to see what the next decade holds.

Me, with my dad, before senior prom-- the sunburn is from playing cricket in one of my classes the day before

Me, 10 years later

So for those of you in my graduating class reading this and attending tonight-- it will be great to see you. And for those who couldn't make it home or had another conflict-- you'll be missed, and I can't believe it might be another decade before we see you again.


~Melody :-)