Have You Been Back To Your High School Reunion?

I have not, at least not for the last 20 years. After 25 years, I gathered up my courage, my husband, and my kids, and returned. Courage? Why would anyone need courage to go to a high school reunion?

Let me tell you why. Twelve years in one place is a very long time. Everyone in the school knows you, your siblings, and your parents. They’ve known you since you were little. Over the years, cliques of kids form, break apart, and reform. And by the 7th-8th grades, the cliques start to stick. Kids get mean, really mean. They do it because it makes them feel better than their peers. They’re just trying to figure out who they are too. But before you realize what’s going on, you’re just like a duck stuck in the muck (to quote one of my childrens’ books). And, I had a positive school experience!

At 12 and13 years old, you’re just beginning the journey of figuring out who you are. Over the rest of our lives, most of us will still be trying to figure out who we want to be and what we want to accomplish in our lives.

Flashback to Spring 1983… playing team sports, going out with friends, homework, boys, best friends, parties, prom, independence from our parents, the stress of applying to colleges, leaving home, and spreading our wings. No longer a duck stuck in the muck. We have the chance to fly.

Fast Forward to Fall 2008… after 25 years, I admit that I was brought to tears in the warm greetings I received and gave to all of my classmates. Everyone had come into their own. For the most part, the cliques were gone. My class had soared and we had grown up with families of our own. There were still a couple ducks, but since everyone else was flying, it no longer mattered.