Monday, May 08, 2006
10 yr reunion
the first weekend in may is always reunion weekend at glendale adventist academy, and i hadn’t really come back to participate in any of the activities before… but this year it was actually my ten-year anniversary of graduation, so our class had a few special activities. even though our main reunion is planned for june 3, we still had a few get-togethers this weekend…
here are a few of the classmates that i saw again… some of ‘em had already escaped to go play in the alumni games (they play alumni vs varsity), but pictured here are dan, lori, nikki, and sam in the front row, and bryan riffel, duane, susi, lyn, me, and kathleen standing behind ‘em.
probably the most reunion-y feeling i got that night was when i was walking up right when i got outta my car. i was headed outta the faculty parking lot and got a glimpse of bryan, standing there right behind the flagpole, talking on the cell phone, and he looked like it was 10 years ago - exactly the same! i almost thought he was his younger brother cuz he didn’t look like he aged not even a day! then, while i was standing there, saying hi to him, i turned around and saw ricky baptist approaching with his wife in one hand and his son in the other!
by the way, he was the only one of us who brought a spouse and a kid. well… okay, sam and kathleen came as a married couple, but they were both classmates… so jasmine was the only “in-law” to show up.
i guess in that sense, it was sorta nice that there wasn’t a whole lotta “reunion talk” - y’know, the “what are you doing now?” conversations small-talk were kept to a minimum. we were all just happy to see each other - as soon as someone new walked into the room we’d all cheer and welcome and greet them and it was really heartwarming to see everyone be friendly - now, we’re all friends. it doesn’t matter who your friends were in high school, we just wanted to see everyone again. we just sat there and spent time together and reminisced and called up classmates who weren’t there and passed the phone around to talk to them, and it was neat to be in that environment again. it was weird… everything was so familiar, there were barely any changes to the school, yet it was like i was seeing parts of the school for the first time - i even asked where the bathroom was before i remembered that i went to school there for 10 years and of course i knew where the bathroom was!
anyways, it was nice being back for a little bit. even playing in the reunion volleyball games the next morning - where old alumni (yeah - i’m old alumni!!! yikes!) beat the young alumni twice, and then we teamed up against varsity and beat ‘em 3 games straight - it was just neat being on the court with former teammates, working together as a team once again… it was neat, cuz we all just gelled on the court again, some of us were rustier than others, but all of us entirely enjoyed the experience =) i didn’t get anyone’s phone numbers and i have no delusions of making them part of my daily life again, but i think we just enjoyed it for what it was - visiting part of our past and enjoying those memories together.