This past weekend I attended my 30^th high school reunion in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville.  I had not seen any of my classmates since our 10-year reunion, except via Facebook, of course. We graduated in 1980 (so you don’t have to do the math) and attended a big public high school, with a class of 488. And yes, we did have some famous people in our school. Most notably Wynonna Judd, but she is a year younger than I. We went to a marching band contest together. But I digress….

As a high school counselor, I kind of looked at the whole weekend experience through that lens and here are my observations, the morning after:

• Yes, it continues to be true that the men looked VERY different from their high school years, but many of the women were recognizable to me. I would have known about five of the men without a nametag.
• We may be nearly 50, but I have to say that I still felt the old anxiousness about walking into that room. Who would I sit with? Would I know anyone? Would people be friendly? Did I look okay?
• In the end, you still gravitate to your old crowd. I remember talking to some people I didn’t know that well at the 10-year gathering, but this time it was mostly about the running buddies.
• I didn’t remember the vast majority of my classmates. I expected to recognize most of the names (especially since I was co-editor of the yearbook) but no. I had no idea who many of the people were.
• This leads me to probably the most usable work-related insight: All that time you spend in high school worrying about what other people think of you or perceived slights or whatever, and in the end, you won’t even remember who most of the people are, let alone some drama you might have shared.
• You wonder about all the people who aren’t there. I found that the vast majority in attendance still live in the area and seem to have some kind of regular contact. But I kept thinking, “I wonder what happened to ___________?” There are some fairly significant people in the life of my high school years who left high school, left town and never looked back.

I guess that there may be something a little wrong with me. I had lots of fun at the reunion…for about three hours. At that point I had talked to the people I wanted to talk to, the music was turned up, the lights were turned down, and I was “ready to leave with the man who brung me”…my sweetheart, husband and best friend. This was my home for 17 years, but I was ready to go to my real home, where my family, friends and work make me happy every day.  It was great to dip my toe in the past, but I would much rather swim in the lake of today.