Class of '61 50th Reunion!

This past weekend I attended my 50^th High School reunion.  It was great seeing old friends and acquaintances and catching up on some good times. 

We aren’t the same people we were in high school.  We may look the same, and even sound the same, but now we have more in common than we did 50 years ago.  The years have been good to some and not so good to others.  How we weathered those years shows in the tiny wrinkles that line our face and in the depths of our eyes. 

At earlier reunions we spoke of our marriages, our children, our jobs.  Now we speak of our retirement, our marriages, our grandchildren and our health.  Health is a big one!  For the most part, we are grateful that we can still come to these reunions and so very sad for those who are no longer with us and for those who are unable to attend because of health problems, traveling problems, etc.  We remember times, long ago, that meant so much to us and long for those times when life was simpler and troubles were fewer.

We vow to stay in touch, but alas, life takes over again when we return home and immerse ourselves in our daily routines.  We think about those we have seen and wonder sadly, in the back of our minds, how many will be around at our next reunion.

I also think we find that each person at the reunion gives us back a piece of ourselves that existed back then … that part of us that held our impressions and our beliefs of who we thought we were and, therefore, who we thought others were in relation to us.  We see how wrong we were, in most instances, and how time is a great leveler.

We’ve all had our bumps and bruises in life, our plans that didn’t pan out, or did.  We’ve had our accomplishments, our failures, our dreams and our hopes.

We now know how much more we are alike. 

More alike than different.

And, we revel in that knowledge.