They should happen more often.
Weren’t we cute?
Nineteen out of thirty-eight kids from grade 2 went all the way to senior year with us. Our class numbers swelled and shrank over the years but we had one of the larger classes in our small school, always the boys outnumbering the girls. We graduated a class of somewhere in the neighborhood of 33 students in 1987. And we scattered far and wide.
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Guatemala, Japan… there are probably more, those are the places I can think of off the top of my head. At least four from our graduating class have served our country in the military. Three others have sadly passed away.
I’m still appreciating the evening I spent with this group for our 25th year reunion not long ago. All but one of our older selves were in the second grade together.
There is nothing like a class reunion to shave off 25 years, or even more, when you consider that some of us have known each other since kindergarten. Lots of good conversations flew around the table. Some old memories, some current life stories, some events like 9-11-2001 that we all shared though miles and states apart. We talked about the ones who weren’t there… busy with life and work and families. There aren’t too many groups of people who can pick up where they left off decades later and feel nearly as close as they did back then. Perhaps closer. Life and time and change and joy and sorrow and faith and failures and successes have been real for each of us and perhaps we understand humanity and the heart a little better than we did back then.
I’m already looking forward the our 30th that we’re going to plan for 2017 and hope for a higher participation rate. I find myself wishing this could happen once a year instead of waiting for specific anniversaries.
These are good people. I miss them again already.
