The fact that I will turn 40 in less than one calendar year doesn’t bother me. Really, it doesn’t!
I’m only as old as I feel, and most days I feel like I’m closer to 30. However, the fact that I just helped celebrate my 20-year class reunion does make me feel old.
Twenty years out of high school? Wow, that’s longer than I was in school.
I graduated from Cathedral High School in New Ulm in 1992 with only 31 kids in my class. We were a pretty good group of kids when it came to cliques and avoiding too much pettiness.
Don’t get me wrong, we certainly had groups of people, but it wasn’t as if I couldn’t interact with the more popular group. When we all got together the other weekend, people quickly filtered back to their comfort levels.
This is probably normal; my dad tells me people do that at his class reunions yet, and he’s been out a tad bit longer than I have.
We were able to come together though and show solidarity in remembering the first classmate we lost. Jessica was a real leader in our class and very bright; it was a shame when she died of cancer last year, a real shock to our systems.
I hope we don’t have to worry about that again anytime soon, but a couple of my classmates put together a nice tribute to Jessica’s memory.
I was very excited leading up to this reunion; it had been 10 years since I’d seen many of my classmates. We even had someone fly in from Oregon for this one!
We toured our old school and realized how much had NOT changed! The desks, chairs, tables, and lockers were pretty much the same, which brought a level of comfort back to us.
Working in education, I’m used to seeing schools, but I’ve always thought of my high school as being a comfortable place, and the unchanging aspects we saw helped solidify some of my memories.
I encourage high school students to savor the memories you make. Try to get along with your classmates; you never know what fond memories someone might bring up 20 years from now!
I didn’t have to be close compadres with everyone, but I could count many people as friends, and that made interacting with so many people even more fun for my reunion. If you’re a senior this year, try to talk with some of your classmates you don’t know very well. You might find something in common that can last beyond high school!
I enjoyed high school a great deal. It was the best four years of my life…until college.
Those were the best years of my life…until moving to New Richland. Every step builds on the previous one, so laying down a solid foundation in high school only makes what happens after that much better.
And with that, I want to wish a happy anniversary to my wife Michelle. The fact that I grow happier every year 14 years into this journey is a testament to what a wonderful, loving spouse she is!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is wale, which is a ridge on cloth, such as, “The wales on his corduroy pants helped him feel like he was the height of fashion.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!