Do people or places really change? I attended 50th high school reunion at Fresno High School, Fresno, CA, this weekend. Yes I must admit that it was that long ago that I did actually graduate from high school. Afterward questions came to me. I think that the ones who you should be looking for are the ones who have changed. Those are the ones that you knew but that you did not really hang out with in school. They have lived lives and are open to talk to everyone. People do change and in many cases for the better. It may depend on where they have worked since high school. Those who have people skills and work with the public do seem to be more open to all of the people from school. No, I really don’t believe that. I feel it is the desire to see what happened to the people that we knew at a pivotal time in our lives. Some of them are the people who we wanted to know, but because we were all teenagers and knew that we should only be associated with those we thought of as perfect, we missed many people that we should have really known better.
It is so much fun to look back on the high school year’s from this distance. You can remember all of the fun times and can just forget those tests and other events that gave you troubles at that time. It is also fun to see the people now and then to remember what they looked like when you last saw them in high school. I did notice several things about the people that I saw this weekend. The women all had much shorter hair, but by this I’m reflecting on the style which was for much longer and hair that was piled high on the head. It seemed that the women care about their appearance, but that many have given up on coloring their hair. Not all have white hair, but thankfully most don't seem to like having their hair colored to an extreme. Many of the men had very short white hair.
It seems conversation hinged on being at events that brought us together, but not without a drink or two and some good food to give us something to do while we are talking. It also gave us something to do, in case of awkwardness, when speaking to people that you don't remember.
It is so different to see all of these people who you knew as students and who you wondered if they would ever manage to do anything with their lives. Over the years you did see some of these people but not many. It seems that as the time goes by, we all have many things that have occurred to us both in our private and professional lives. It seemed that in this setting, we spent most of our time talking about the public lives of our fellow students. I do suppose that if I was still living in my home town I would have had more curiosity about the personal lives my fellow alum. It does seem that many of the graduates still live in the same area. Many have lived in other parts of the world and then returned to the area.
I realized later that I would have loved to know how diverse our class has become. It did seem that most still lived in a relatively short distance from the school. I have always thought of us West Coasters as much more traveled then our friends on the East Coast. I kept finding people who live at or near where they went to high school. Some of the people seem to have moved to the smaller towns but still in that area. It also seems that most have done well with their lives and have visited many places, just that they seem to come back home to stay.
Well it was an interesting weekend and overall we did enjoy it. So my recommendation is go to the reunion and see that you are really no better or worse than the rest of the high school class you knew and hope that the ones you want to see will actually attend.
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