This is not a travel blog...
A couple of days ago a girl from the high school I graduated from contacted my parents and told them that our school was holding a 15 year reunion.
As it is held in mid-October in brisbane I definitely won't be going... but how do i feel about this?
I have been mulling it over and i dont think i would have gone anyway... why? It was 15 years ago the last time i was at that school. It was an okay school and my fellow students were basically decent people, but I havent kept in contact with any of them... not one. This means to me that I didnt really care that deeply about any of them.
We had our moment together and then we went our separate ways in the world.
I am sure that some have done 'better' than me and others have done 'worse' than me. I assume we are all a little fatter and most of them would have children, jobs and the usual. You have traveled, loved, worked and lost. You have experienced joy and pain and everything in between.
The person I was in that school has very little connection to the person I am now. The seeds of The Wah were in that boy but the man I am today was shaped by forces outside of school over many years.
If you treated me well at school then I wish you well in your life.
If you treated me poorly at school then I still wish you well in your life.
So, fifteen years on, this is my reunion. This is where I say what I would say to you at the reunion.
This is where I finally bury that chapter of my life.
Best Wishes to you all
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3 comments:
I understand your comments, which are relevant to you. I did go to my high school reunion (20 years after finishing school!) even though I hadn't kept in touch with anyone much. We were a small class in a fairly new school, and all those people taught me something and contributed to who I am. I remember my high school days as a vivid, and intense time in my life. This was the group of people I saw daily as we lived through our teenage years with a backdrop of the Vietnam war. Your high school experience is something that you might appreciate more when you grow older (especially very elderly) - knowing that there was a group of people you shared unique experiences with, even though those experiences might have seemed insignificant at the time. I think that's why the very elderly can get so lonely - there's no-one else left who shared their life experiences.
p.s. I enjoyed the photos of the Freedom Monument in Riga, on Natalie's website.
I remember the teachers vividly and not the students.
The people who have taught me the most are the people i have called flatmates and friends in my twenties... but then again I have always been slightly behind the eight-ball on the whole development scale :)
There is a school of thought which suggests that *late development* is a reflection of high intelligence and deep thinking. In my experience/estimation, you possess both qualities and I have learned much from you. We are all travellers and no matter how long my sojourn on this earth, it is my hope to never stop learning or to feel lonely. My past is in my present, but I don't long for it, or see it as a better/worse time than now. It is part of a whole. A continuum. Not particularly dingnafied, but meh...part of the charm. Or not. For similar reasons to yours, I have never been to a reunion. But I do have friends from highschool. Although they're more like blood. I have been prattling on somewhat, but something freaky...a couple nights ago, before I read this post, I dreamt about you being a skinny, schoolkid....
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