7 Quick Takes - 20-year reunion edition

(Watch out, two posts in one week!)

1. So, the thing about reunions and high school classmates is that they're like your brothers and sisters, really. I mean, they're so far planted into the fabric of who you are, and where you've been, and how you relate to the world. Before the reunion, I was trying to figure out WHY we feel the need to reunite with people we only hung around for 4 years. I thought, I have Facebook, I don't really need to see these people in person, many of whom I didn't even like all that much back then, and I don't know who I'm even going to talk to. But after the reunion, where I didn't ever feel the need to include last names when introducing people to my husband -- "This is Edward ___ wasn't necessary -- it's just Edward. I mean, you know -- Ed! From my LIFE." -- I get it now. We get together because they're part of us, whether or not we want them to be.

2. Especially coming from a small Catholic school like mine. We all laughed about wearing name tags. Really? We need these? There were only 88 of us. We didn't have the kind with yearbook photos, thank goodness, but still. I suppose they're for the spouses, mostly. Apparently, late at the Friday night event, which we missed because we were still driving into town, the name tags of the absent people got passed around, even to some random strangers who were at the same bar where the class was gathered. Such a typical thing for the jokers from my class to do. When they told me about it the next night, they said they had given mine to some young 20-something and told her a little about me... and then she went ahead and looked me up on Facebook on her phone. And I HAD gotten a very random friend request that night (I was checking my phone while we drove, to see photos from the event; there weren't many.) I ignored it like I do all weird friend requests, but now I know what it was!

3. Lots of people DO NOT CHANGE.

4. Some people do, however. The person I talked to the most, probably, was a person I talked to only a handful of times during school (but he's part of my BEING!). He was too cool then, not in the popular athlete kind of way, but in the popular-alternative-music-and-extreme-sarcasm way. Wait, those people weren't the popular ones in your school? They were, in mine. (So were the athletes, but the alt-music crowd was a different kind of cool, altogether.) Anyway, he's now a stay-at-home dad (!), homeschooling his two boys, doesn't drink at all (!), and still playing music, now in a local country band "because that's where the money is." He said all their dreams and inspirations went out the window once they got older and now playing music is "all business." HA! HAHA! 

5. I started thinking, this morning, about our principal. She's been there 25 years+. She was the only nun at our school (nun shortage, you know) and... we all really hated her. But now I can't really remember when we, as students, ever talked with her or how she appeared in our daily lives. I mean, I know she was in charge, she had a reputation for being "mean," and she did used to walk the halls sometimes, but it isn't like she taught classes -- she mostly stayed in her office. I bet she would have been a good moderator for clubs and things... but she didn't do that. I bet deep down, she's led quite a lonely life, actually. I bet she knew the cruel names we all called her. (Adults, I know now, aren't stupid.) I think I need to add her to my daily (or, my whenever I remember) prayer list. I wonder how long she'll stay there?

6. Some people REALLY change. The sister of one of our classmates who has passed away (I say that for MB's benefit), turns out to be a really good, interesting, kind person. She and her mom attended our events and I'm so glad they did.

7. They had a photobooth.With props (not seen in this pic).