I have been intending to write about my 15-year high school reunion for a while. It was two weeks ago, and I still can’t find the words to describe the experience. It’s so bizarre to walk into a room full of people you grew up with and not recognize most of them. And then to see people your own age and have them be so old! It was surreal. But seeing those people again brought back so many memories from childhood, although not necessarily high school. I keep thinking of the house I grew up in, the acres of woods in my back yard, the cornfield at the end of the street and the man-made pond across the street. We were explorers in the woods, tracked deer through the cornfields and created our own Paradise Island on a little inlet of the pond. We spent so much time in the trees that we actually learned to navigate our way around the little island without ever touching the ground. We would play this game in the winter after the pond froze to see who could get the closest to the hotspring without falling in, which meant inevitably some one would fall in. I spent several winters on that frozen pond dreaming of becoming the next Dorothy Hamill. I used to complain about living in a tiny little town, but you can’t do those things in the suburbs.
I admit high school was pretty boring. The social highlight was going to Pizza Hut after the football game. Then, when we were driving, the weekends were spent cruising up and down Main Street listening to hair bands. When I think of high school, I think of orchestra, choir and theater. I think of HeadBangers Ball after school and spending the night at my best friends house, cursing all her siblings come Sunday morning when they’re all up and loud and I’m still trying to sleep. The people at that reunion were not in any of those memories. They were cheerleaders and wannabes. They were the people who, for the most part, never left small town, oh. They were the people who called us freaks in high school because we didn’t subscribe to their idea of “normal”. Well, if normal means you become miserable and get old before your time, then I’ll stay abnormal, thank you very much. We are all way to young to be that old!