20 Year Reunion

My twenty year high school reunion was last June and it happened without me.  It was the first reunion I missed because we were in Vegas for Erin's National dance competition.  I was sad at first and then I saw the photos and realized that no one I really wanted to see, with a few notable exceptions, was there.  None of my besties from back then were in attendance either.  Then, a few months ago the last two of my best friends from junior high and high school joined Facebook and we all reconnected.  Of the four of us Paula, Julie and I are still living in the Salt Lake area and Jennie is in Indiana.  And then a few weeks ago Jennie posted that she was going to be visiting Utah and the wheels started in motion.  We ended up syncing our schedules for an evening together.  Our own private twenty year reunion.

I had seen Paula and Julie about ten years ago for lunch but that was before I had either of my kids and before Julie was married or had kids.  Jennie I hadn't seen since graduation - although neither of us can figure out exactly why since she was in Utah until just a few years ago.  So there was so much for everyone to catch up on.  It was amazing to sit around a table and tell our life stories and what we've been up to for twenty years; share where our families are; look at pictures and reminisce; oh, and gossip about other people who weren't there.  We shared the stories of when and how our children were born, mourned the loss of Julie's mom and old classmates, talked about old boyfriends and laughed about where we would be if things had been different.  The ultimate girls night!  We laughed, we screamed, we talked over each other, we beaded - well, Julie beaded watch bands for all of us - and at the end, we took some pictures to commemorate the occasion.

Here we are today... From the top: me, Paula and from left to right, Julie and Jennie

And here we are "then"...

This is the picture we had done from our senior year that inspired the pose on the stairs.  Thank god none of us have the same hair do!  If you want to know what the 80's looked like, here it is!

The best part of the evening was going away knowing that no matter how different we all are - or how much none of us have changed - friendships can still go on or pick up where they left off.  I felt like I was the only one who was fundamentally different from back in those days since everyone else is still active in the religion we were raised which I discarded long ago like an ill-fitting suit.  But, if truth be told I bet each of them also felt the same way based on their own lives and things no one knows to expect when heading into the journey.

This was such a memorable night - thank you Julie, Jennie and Paula for making it so!  And thank you, Facebook, without which none of it would have been possible!  The most ironic part of the evening was that Clint was working a night shift so my Mom had come over to babysit.  How crazy to walk in, later than I told her I'd be home, feeling like a teenager with her sitting on the couch waiting for me - just like back in the day when I'd walk in late for curfew (as always) hoping she was in bed already!  That cherry on top of the evening helped me to go away from the night feeling young again rather than old.  The perfect ending to a perfect evening.