Hey all;

 

  Well, the time came and the time went, and I am officially past the 10 year mark since graduation.  Ouch.

  The day of the first day of our reunion party, I almost elected to consider the $60.00 Christine and I spent on it null, and just skip the whole thing and spend the evening visiting my friend Jerrod.  Jerrod had come down from Grande Prairie for the reunion, but we really didn't think we'd have that great of a time.  Jerrod had an okay time, as did Christine, but, wow, was I ever glad that I went.

  Ever have a friend who you haven't seen for a few years?  And when you finally see them again, you approach them kinda nervously, not really sure how to act or what to say?  Then, once the initial 'Hi' is out of your mouth, it's like the conversation just falls naturally and you seem like you had never been apart?  Imagine that with an entire grad reunion class and you'll understand how our 10 year went.

  About 2/3rds of the class showed up, with their significant others when able.  I really felt bad for a lot of the significant others, because we Grad '96ers tended to get talking to one another and forget about them for a while.  We all apologized for it, but I mean really, we've known everyone there for at least a decade, and some of them we've even known for 23 years!  How can our significant other's compare history to that?  Even if we got married a year before we graduated, we still knew some of the attendees there twice as long as our hubbies.

  Some of our grads elected not to show up.  For those who lived quite a distance away, I could understand.  But we had people who lived in town who decided to not show up.  That's just lousy.  They had excuses like: "I haven't done anything in the last 10 years, no-one wants to hear about my boring life," or, "I was never friends with any of those people, so why should I go?"

  For the record, I have to say that not only was everyone welcome into the fold again, and not only did everyone get along, but we also never really talked about anyone's lives or successes and failures.  We talked about teachers, classmates, family, etc.  It was really awesome.

  The next day (Sunday), some of the reunionites went down to the park and brought their whole family with them.  It was great to see children from our grads playing together.  Kinda brought back memories, y'know?  Plus, the food was great.

  So, I guess what I'm saying is this:  if you ever get the chance to go to your reunion, do it.  Maybe it will just be like old times, good or bad.  Maybe it will be a wash.  But you'll never know, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't give it a shot.

  Take care all and talk to you real soon.

 

Fred