10 Year Class Reunion

Originally posted on August 24, 2002 on my original site.

The day before I leave for the Czech Rep (Aug 24rth, 2002) I have my ten year class reunion. To which I do not know if I will be welcome, because the check that I wrote to be able to attend has not been cashed. I am in the process of finding out whether this is a problem or not.

I was, unfortunately, unable to make it to my five year class reunion. At the time I was in the Navy, stationed on the USS Enterprise out of Norfolk, Virginia, and unbeknown to me, leave should be arranged for well in advance during the summer, because everyone wants time off. Go figure! Silly me! So I was not able to go. Lesson Learned!

Now there is my 10 year reunion which I am very much looking forward to attending. To be able to see how the former jocks and beauty queens have fared in the real world; to see how the bullies, and seeming wonderful people have turned out. Life has a strange way of changing people, or not. I am hopefully not sounding trite here but in many cases "The more things change, the more they stay the same." I am curious to see how true this is with my classmates. To see how the journey to find oneself in the seeming vast and incomprehensible reality set before us after graduation has effected them, especially in light of how it has effected me. Some of us have a plan and some do not. For some of us life turned out as we expected, for better or worse. Some are completely held aghast and brought to there knees in surprise and horror at how their life has happened before them, seemingly with out control or the ability to forge it to their will or likeness. I think I have rambled enough....

Edited: 11/06/02

I have recently survived 10 weeks of of traveling abroad. I have had two and a half months wandering about 4 European countries: The Czech Rep, Germany, Belarus, and Russia, and now get the chance to write about my class reunion. Well, it was very interesting. Seeing people that I have not seen for 10 years. Most people were mellowed out versions of their high school selves, which in many cases is a great thing. Many were still the same, but just a bit older - keeping to their clicks and aloofness.

Much to my extreme horror, I felt much as I did in high school, shy, reserved and found it very difficult to start talking to people. I found that very disturbing. I have changed a lot since high school, too much, to allow myself to return to that type of behavior. I believe it was brought on merely by the fact that I will be around the people from high school, possibly having the same subconscious expectations that I had then. UGH! Most of the people were much more approachable, but some kept to the same cliques that they had in high school; but some wandered outside the confines of the clique or social group. That is a good thing! I talked to some people that I would normally have talked to and few that I would not have had the courage to speak to. It was quite the learning experience.

The way I felt during this kind of scared me, especially with my trip coming up. I cannot afford to have this shyness dominate me during my trip overseas. My primary goal in going there is to see friends and to get to know the people. I will not be able to do that if I feel this way. It did not bode well. Fortunately, I did not let it bother me too much. For much of my trip I was, well, rather brazen. That is a story for another page...