Can I just say wow? It was a supreme beach day today and I had to draaaag myself off the moominbeach this afternoon. Do I really have to go to the high school reunion dinner tonight? I had a really good time on the boat tour but my inner resources for social interaction are soooo limited. How will I navigate tonight?

If anything, it was easier! Who knew? I started running into people out in the parking lot and rolled through several relatively in-depth conversations out by the bar, then settled into a seat at a table with a few people I really *wanted* to connect with and didn’t have to struggle to make conversation with. And The Beautiful Mimi dredged this photoooo up from somewhere. I bought that “crop-top” at Woolworth’s. I think I was maybe 12 or 13? There aren’t too many photooos of me at that age.

The tone of a 40th reunion is so different than that of a 20th. Back then I felt intimidated by all of the wonderful things people were doing. Me? I had a husband, kids, a house, and a good job that I liked but I wasn’t making a whole ton of money and I didn’t really feel like I was living up to my potential. Did other people feel like that too? I don’t know. At the time, I felt as though there was a wee bit of oneupsmanship going on. Looking back on that, I don’t think we were really trying to outdo each other. It was more like we were desperately wanting to feel successful ourselves and who best to compare ourselves with than our high school classmates.

It was all so much more casual this time around. Yeah, we talked about our jobs (or the ones we’ve retired from) and our kids and grandkids (those who have them) and our parents’ deaths or whatever struggles they are having. This time, I didn’t even think about measuring myself against others. In a way that’s odd because for the first time in my life, I actually have a job that I like *and* pays pretty darn well. But who cares? Have I lived up to the potential of my intelligence and education? Maybe not exactly. But I have “made it” somehow. I am not a world-class flute player or the CEO of some big company or whatever but I have a good job and enough money to live on and a fantastic family and some good friends and I just don’t care about much of anything else any more. I got the sense that I was not the only Soo High 1972 grad who felt that way.

Somebody on the boat tour last night expressed the opinion that our class, from a high school in what some folks describe as an isolated, rugged outpost, sent a lot of folks out into the world who have done very well and made the world a better place. We have, although I don’t think we have any household names among us. I am not one of those but I do not think I have made things worse either.

Cheers to the Soo High Class of 1972. Seeya in five years. Or for our 60th birthdays. Or in Lansing.

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