As Time Goes By

I have returned to my old stomping ground to attend my 20 year high school reunion this weekend. Although, with urban growth and development, the prairies and fields I used to ride past on my way to school have been replaced by clusters of replica single family homes and business parks with Starbucks-like coffee shops.

It's hard for me to believe it has been 20 years. It seems like only last week I was sitting in Mr. Estell's health class on one of those sunny warm days close to the end of the school year, looking out at the lawn space in between buildings and figured out that I would be 27 years old when the new millennium came around, and 38 years old at the 20 year high school reunion. To my 18 year old self, it was a lifetime away.

In some ways, the past 20 years have been a lifetime. I got married twice (fortunately the second has turned out much better than the first), I've traveled the world, earned two educational degrees, gave birth to two amazing daughters, buried two of my three parents, moved residences more times than I can count, and have managed to fit into nearly every pant size on the retail spectrum.

I always dreamed that I would go back to my 20 year reunion as the picture of health and success, that I would be that enviable person who made it out and came back with fabulous stories to tell. Those thoughts were the musings of a woman much younger. Now I see that we are all coming back, successful in our own right with our own variety of stories to tell. Although some people have done more than others, at this age, envy is few and far between.

Through the magic of Facebook I have reconnected with the wonderful people I knew in high school and some who I didn't know as well, but have since become more familiar, because our views and experiences are more clearly aligned. The bright side of Facebook is that you are able to reconnect with wonderful people you knew from your past, the dark side is that some of those people are now Teabaggers.

There are many things I would have done differently in the past 20 years, but for the most part, I don't regret the life that I've lived or the experiences that I've had. However, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have definitely made more of a concerted effort to lay off the carbs.