A Partial Reunion

I'm headed to my high school reunion tonight. If you think I could sound a bit more enthusiastic, you're right.

Not that I don't want to go. There are a couple of people who will be there who I fell out of touch with for no good reason. I'm very excited to see them again and catch up. No, I'm just thinking of all the people who contributed to the fun parts of high school who won't be there.

There are all the people from the other classes: Evan, Bill, Anna, Nana, Dan, Chris, Doug, Kevin. Of those, I'm still in touch with only Bill and Anna, and only Anna lives close enough to visit with. They're not even invited, of course, because what counts for a high school reunion is who got handed a piece of paper the same day you did.

But even among the paper-date sharing crowd, there are plenty of people who won't be coming to any reunion. We were not a joining bunch. We were the ones who sat in pep rallies (when we didn't skip them) during the parts where they tried to play the classes against each other and said, "You want me to yell competitively? Right." Seriously. That was my whole class, the silent ones. My friends were the ones who skipped. They not only had better things to do; they had better places to be.

Stacey, Barb, Erin, Brian, John--the defiant ones. I'd love to know what they're all doing now, but unless I'm very, very off in my guess, none of them will be there. I'll hope to be surprised. I'll raise a glass in their honor if I'm not, but without all these people, tonight just won't be my high school reunion.