I would be lying if I said that my 50th High School Reunion snuck up on me. My husband is a few years older and he used Covid and needing to wear a mask as an excuse to avoid his reunion. I had subconsciously kept the possibility of a long road trip this year in my budget planning.
When the date was announced I had a mixed bag of emotions. Traveling 1200 miles to spend a few hours with some people I knew when I was a teen might not be the best use of my time or money. But then, I haven't been back to that part of the country for a while and might not have another excuse/opportunity. I have lost touch with the girls I hung out with in high school for the most part, but I have been communicating with some of the people I didn't know as well on social media for a while and it would be good to see them in person.
After tossing the idea around in my head for a couple of months I decided that we could afford the trip time-wise and money-wise. My husband and I made reservations, requested time off, and started planning our trip. Stopping to see relatives along the way and hitting one or two tourist spots helped justify the trip that I still had not convinced myself would be worthwhile.
Long story short; I went, and I dragged my husband along who ended up being the hit of the party at my all-girls school. We attended a casual party the evening before where we had an opportunity to catch up. The next day we went to mass together with the other honored classes and then we toured the school and had dinner together. Our discussions convinced me that despite fifty years of life, each of us was still the same person who walked across that stage in 1973. The talkative ones are still talkative, the organizers still organize, the worriers still worry, and the elegant dressers still do. One thing I found fascinating was that more than half of the class claimed to be the "shy one".
Walking through the school we noticed how well the building had aged and the updates that we could not have imagined. The Home Ec Room is now used for the band and orchestra, while the library is now a media center with no books. The reverse image Xerox machine is long gone and I am sure that no current student could imagine what a mimeograph machine is for. We talked about what teachers we had in each room and how much we appreciate them.
We finished the evening catching up on each other's lives and trying to learn about those we had not heard from. We chatted about who had passed away, who has kept in contact with whom, and who let us know they couldn't make it, and we wondered about the people no one has heard from.
Fifty years is a long time but these are the women that I spent my formative years with and the women who have lived through much the same reality during our adult life. We lived through NASA, Civil unrest, and Vietnam physically together and we are still emotionally together experiencing five decades of personal, American, and World history from similar lenses.
I took the time to spend a few hours with the girls, now women who I care about because they are part of my history and I am glad I did.
