Cast of Characters

The 10 year HS Reunion, actually kind of a crazy concept.  I mean when looked at superficially it's just a group of people who spent some time together in a certain place who are doing a check-in a few years later.  I guess, like always, I like to dig a little deeper.....so here it is:

Ultimately, since we were little kids, we've been putting this insane cast of characters in our lives.  I still remember having a crush on Melissa Rossi in 2nd grade...I remember every person who ever said something hateful to me...and most importantly I remember the people I was with during the most defining moments of my High School career (for me that was graduation, mock trial, speech and debate, etc.).  So even though I sit here 10 years later I would be ignorant not to acknowledge the huge importance of a majority of these people,  oddly even the ones who were assholes.  

So that brings us to now...to a room in a hotel filled with people that you spent a part of your life with.  So initially I thought that this exercise would really be about seeing what people looked like...who was married?...who had babies?...and a series of other catty bullshit that I'm embarrassed to even admit to thinking.  But here's the catch:  This Reunion, for me, had almost nothing to do with what everyone else was doing, but rather became this self-evaluation of the person I had become--  in small ways thanks to a select number of people in this room.   When you're 17 years old you're almost not capable of saying to a friend, "Hey...You're important to me...thanks."  But as I looked around at the Reunion after-party (for lack of a better term)....I found myself surrounded by people who were more important and influential to me than I might have ever let them know...maybe this night was my chance to do that....even if just through a wide smile and firm hug.

As I talked to people I was genuinely excited to hear about their successes...it actually felt really great...an amazing sense of catharsis.  And on the flip side it was also refreshing to know that some people chose to pretend that they had no idea who you were...and at all costs didn't make any form of eye contact.  This was refreshing solely because life needs a balance of ignorance to genuineness-- it's what brings up the stock of the good guys.  

Most importantly this became a night of telling stories...and laughing...and drinking.  I woke up today with a sore throat....and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  So here's a toast to the Class of 2000....the good and the bad.  A toast to a cast of characters who in very certain ways helped make us exactly who we are today.