Tonight was my High School reunion. I went with my best friend from high school , Barbara. She left her husband at home and I drove. It was a trip . I felt old and fat going in, but now I feel pretty much at pace with my peers. Most of us had acquired a couple of pounds. Two of the female classmates were even more petite than they had been in school. Most of us had married and many of us had divorced. Many of us had kids. I would say this was one of the few times in my life that I wished I could say I was married or had kids. There was one other woman that I talked with who had never married. There were a couple of guys who were hard to recognize. They looked like they had been through the ringer a few years ago and were just getting back on their feet. My high school crush was there with his wife. She was absolutely charming and I am happy for him that he found such a wonderful woman to share his life with. There was another guy who had aged so much we thought he was one of our teachers. One of the girls was married to a guy that looked like David Walsh will look in 20 years. 5 or 6 of the women looked almost exactly as they had when we were in high school.
3 of us had passed away . One had stomach cancer, another had a heart problem and had died a few years after college and I never did find out what the third one succumbed to . I hung out with one friend who was mostly excited about going to the public school reunion tomorrow night. The people she hung out with after school all went to the public high. One classmate, who is a doctor now and is married to a doctor, came all the way from Seattle for this event.
I was surprised how many remembered that I was a perfomer and more than one promised to rent Mona Lisa Smile or In Dreams to check for the scenes I was in . It was actually nice to see everybody after all this time. Some people got really trashed. A couple arrived completely drunk- I don’t know how they got home.
I don’t regret the life I live or the choices I made in it ,but I really thought I would have a different life than what I have. I really thought I would have been married and had kids. A couple of people even said I was better off for never marrying. I’ll take their word for it.
Anyhow, I’m glad I went. I look forward to the next one in 10 years.