My happy life

I had been looking forward to my reunion in a kind of nervous-excited sort of way. I was really looking forward to seeing about four people, but was very concerned about how I would feel throughout the weekend: stereotypically you feel like your high school self when you're surrounded by your high school peeps...

Much to my surprise, I didn't feel like a completely awkward nerd this weekend! I enjoyed hanging out with all 24 people who showed up (out of a class of 71) and meeting the spouses too. We were all so much more mature and confident about who we were to be catty in the slightest.

The hotel was fantastic (our organizer got us a killer rate). We spent a lot of time hanging out, eating out, playing in the hotel pool, and playing cards. Max did so great with my friends, some of the alumni spouses asked if he had graduated with us too!!

In the midst of all the fun, I started to worry that I would feel a sense of loss after this weekend was over. [High school was awesome for most of us.... an informal poll revealed that the day after graduation was the most depressing day of our lives for more than half of us -- the other half claimed the first day of college was more depressing.] Would I be sad going home to reality after such a FUN blast from the past?

As it turns out, no. Instead of leaving high school friends and starting over in a new country where I know no one, I'm coming home to our house, our pets, my career, my friends.... my happy life!

blast from the past

Hey, are you sick of hearing about my ten year high school reunion yet? No?

Then you're in luck, because I've dug out some pictures of me during my senior year:

Ahhh..... I've come a long way!

role-model

I wish that some of our teachers could have attended our reunion. One of my favorite high school teachers was my ninth grade English teacher, and most of my "big word" vocabulary is directly because of him.

In the first week of school, he assigned two chapters of "Great Expectations" by Dickens with a list of twenty vocabulary words. Our homework? Read the chapters, look up and write out the definitions for all twenty words, and use each word in a sentence. Due the next day.

It took us forever. I remember wondering if the whole year was going to be this hard.

The next day, after we had handed in our homework, he said this:

"You guys, I just need to apologize. I did the homework too last night and it took me over two hours to complete! I had no idea it was going to take that long. From now on, it will be a much shorter vocabulary list."

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

And now, fourteen years later, I want to thank this man who taught me what "dregs" and "anathema" mean. And more importantly, I want to thank him for setting such a good example for me: teachers aren't perfect, and it takes both courage and humility to admit mistakes and correct them!

words from ten years ago

This morning, I've been looking through my high school journals. Because before there was blogging, there was journaling... And the thing about journals is that they are so much more CANDID. The words were only meant for me, and as a result my diaries are absolutely dripping with teenage angst and melodrama!

I had originally thought that transcribing a journal entry would make for a fun blog post, but as I leafed through the entries, I realized that most of it is just simply too CRINGE-WORTHY to repeat here. Case in point: I wrote twenty-two pages (front and back!) of a phone call conversation I had with a boy I liked in the tenth grade. Yes! I actually taped the phone conversation and transcribed it into my diary. To relive forever!!

I especially enjoyed reading what I had to say after I had graduated from my international high school in Germany:

"I will have no problem falling for college guys (if there are any worth falling for...)"

and

"I'm definitely NOT going to marry before the age of 25"

Little did I know that I would be celebrating my FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY when I was 25!!

And here's one more little clip that I look back on with a smile (written just before I moved to the States for college):

"I'm terrified of starting over from scratch, of leaving Europe, of leaving home, of closing the doors of my high school world, of saying goodbye to all that is dear to me.... My biggest fear in life, my absolute biggest fear, is that I will look back on my high school years as the best years of my life. I don't want my life to go downhill from here. I want my high school years to be great ones, but I also want experiences that will be even better!"

I smiled when I read those words because my biggest fear didn't come true! The best years of my life are right now (thank you, Lord!!)

Did you keep a diary when you were younger?

officially old

This summer marks ten years since both Max and I graduated from high school.

For my reunion, a nice hotel was booked (with a special discount price), a catered dinner was organized, and various activities were planned for a whole weekend of fun.

For Max's reunion? Only about half of the class was invited, and they're all just meeting up at a local bar.

We'll be out of town for Max's reunion but it sure doesn't sound like we're missing much! We will be attending my reunion this weekend and I'm excited to see everyone again. I'm tempted to wear some kind of sign, letting everyone know that I'm not as big of a nerd as I was way back when (notice that I didn't say that I wasn't a nerd!).

Thankfully, I'm not feeling too much pressure to invent the perfect life. Max and I have had some very fun adventures (and some misadventures which make for good stories) in the past ten years. But do you think it would be tacky to whip out a picture of Barney when everyone starts talking about their babies??