Hey, everyone.
So, last night was my high school reunion. It was... interesting, to say the least, for good and disappointing reasons alike. So today, I'm going to write a reflection on how it went and what happened. Unfortunately, I fear I may paint a bad picture of it. I left two hours after it was supposed to end, most of us did because nobody told us to GTFO, but to be honest, three hours is far too short for a high school reunion, so I got home sometime after one, and didn't get to bed till three. Then I had to get up this morning at 9:30 for church, so I'm sleep deprived, and when I get like this, I get very melancholy. But to be honest, again, I think I may just be an angsty teenager at heart. Anyway...
Today's topic is... Reflection.
Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go.
At first, I wasn't going to write about my reunion because I was afraid of writing something that was incorrect. I wanted to process last night a little bit more, but the best method for me to process something is to write about it, allora (Italian for "so"), I must process it by processing it. So, first question: did I learn the lesson that I feel like I'm missing from ten years ago? Maybe, it's hard to say. I did learn a lesson from last night and that is that a high school reunion isn't high school, which is a weird thing to say because it's so obvious, but when you haven't seen certain people in a decade, you don't expect them to have changed. Time moves for you, but not for them. So when people look different, sound different, act different, or talk about things like being married and having children, it's a very strange phenomenon. You just don't expect any one to ever actually change. Some people don't. There was a guy or two who looked and sounded just like they did back in HS, but most people were different in some way or another.
Another thing that "got" to me was that I thought I had a handle on what certain people were like, and either I clearly didn't, or they get a couple of beers in them and they just act like a bunch of rowdy college students, which is possible, but most of us have graduated already. That time in our lives is over. So, it was super weird for me to see people I thought I knew act in a way contrary to my "knowledge", but it was also unusual because it wasn't that dissimilar from a Laesch family party--there was something oddly familiar about it. It felt at home, but not quite.
So, besides being disoriented and learning that time has passed for everyone else, was there anything good that happened to me? Well, I explained to like four or five different people that I was writing now. They all seemed pretty impressed, but I don't know if I made any sales. My Old Man told me that people at a 10 year reunion are most likely going to want to brag about all the great things they've done. That wasn't my experience. Rarely ever did I get the other side of the conversation and find out what the person opposite me is doing now because conversations would be disrupted and my piece was just so damn long. So, I felt like I did a lot of talking, but didn't get to find out anything other than a lot of people live in and around Ann Arbor. Apparently, that place is jumping. But, there was one thing about the evening that was wholly unexpected.
For starters, I had two guests; we were allowed to bring a "guest" which was either actually a guest or a date. My two were actually friends from the year behind us, and I thought I was going to be the only one who did that; I wasn't. Someone from my class actually married a girl from the year behind us and brought her with him. For a long time, I didn't recognize her. I just thought she was loud, drunk, and obnoxious. Eventually I recognized her and I had a whole new impression of who she was... as loud, drunk, and obnoxious. But, not quite.
See, I started playing that bean bag version of horse shoes with my two guests and I played both teams. Later, the one girl joined in, and it was fun. But then, while we're playing, she starts talking to me about what she did in college, how she went from Vet Tech to hospitality, which is a weird change. But, she talked to me at such length about it that I couldn't help but think, "Has she forgotten about the game?" The other thing I thought was that she wasn't nearly as loud, drunk, and as obnoxious as I thought. She could be quite normal when she wanted to, and I was very surprised at how easily she just carried a conversation with me, much more so than some of my classmates. Perhaps it was the booze.
Anyway, at the end of the night as I'm leaving with my guests, she was our last stop for goodbyes, and she gave all three of us a hug; it surprised me because why would you give someone you barely knew a hug? None of my former classmates gave me a hug, but alright, we can do that. And since I don't believe in giving wimpy hugs, I squeezed her as I am wont to do--I accidentally spilled her wine. But she was completely fine with it saying that she liked the "tightness." She probably meant that she liked be hugged so tightly; she was a little spiffed. So she put her wine down, and came back for a second hug, and she let me have it, so I likewise had to give her the beans. It was definitely one of the best hugs I've had in a while. And as we parted, I told her she was the surprise of the night, which she thought was very sweet, although I didn't specify whether or not the surprise was pleasant. I mean, it was and it wasn't. It was more so pleasing than not.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any of the things done I had planned for the evening. I wanted to ask for a new alumni card, completely forgot. There was someone I wanted to apologize to, Amanda S. (from her maiden name), she wasn't there, so Amanda if you ever read this, I'm sorry for being a douche in high school. And the one person I wanted to see wasn't there, so that was a major bummer. Lastly, I wanted to have fun; did I? I don't know. It doesn't feel like I did, but the party was definitely off the hook and I felt like it was worth it. However, after months of staying home on Saturday night, watching Ghost Adventures, I was pretty desperate to do anything else with my Saturday night. I also don't feel like I made the impression I was hoping to make, that it got lost or ignored or never had the opportunity to come out, but with my sort of reserved energy, the kind where you can only get to know it one-on-one, it gets lost among all the people and booze and partying. Which means that if I ever hope to make the impression I want to, I'm going to need a venue that favors my energy. Oh, wait a minute; you're looking at it! There's nothing for it, then; I'm just going to have to keep writing.
I'm still left with a lingering thought or meditation, and that is the "implied importance of high school." We're told high school is a big deal in our culture, we have hundreds of movies that center around it, and we even feel the need to memorialize our experience by having reunions every so many years. My question is, is high school actually that important to us, or do we just think it is because we're told that, hence becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? It's hard to say for a lot of reasons, but for one unexpected reason for me and my classmates is that it's because our class was so small, 110 or less. So, we all knew each other more or less. We all knew about the great things we had done, the great things we wanted to do, and the great things we hoped to achieve, and amongst that aura of potential is an unhinged, immature spirit of invincibility and inevitable victory--our collective will manifested as an unstoppable force and immovable object. Did we fall victim to the implied importance of high school and fail at the climax of life, or did we meet it and not only succeed, but exceed, the climax?
That question is going to drive me nuts for years, not because I don't have an answer, but because I want to do my part in making sure I fulfill my end of it.
***
Alright, that's enough. I would say stop the clock, but I paused my timer at some point and I didn't hit resume, so it's possible I wrote over time or I'm stopping in time. And then I went back and added some stuff.
I'm going to try distancing myself from the high school theme for a while. I mean, I did get some good intel regarding a few projects I have in the works, but that intel is for my books, not my blog. So, I think this week's theme will be the importance of writing earnestly. Seeing everybody at the reunion and telling them what I was up to, it's kind of like, oh sh*t, now I have to deliver on the writing goods. They'll be expecting it. It's time to get some stuff done. Plus, it's just where I belong.Keep writing, my friends.
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