Reunion thoughts...

So for the last few weeks, I have been working with a friend from high school to plan our 10 year high school reunion. As we begin to prepare and pull everyone together, I've really been thinking a lot about a couple of points...

In planning, we have come across one person who doesn't want to be involved. It's not that he just doesn't want to join us but that he doesn't want to be invited, doesn't want to know anything about it. Granted, I don't know anything about his current situation, but it just breaks my heart that he would not desire to get in touch with some of his friends from high school. A gal I went to school with said today how odd it is that you see someone everyday for 4+ years and then one day, you just don't see them anymore, and that's the end of it. The majority of us just step away and never look back. Isn't that so weird??

Also as I look back I have to remind myself that just as I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, each person that graduated with me is not the same. I have made most decisions that are within my upbringing. My parents laid the foundation to how I should live as an adult and I followed suit (at least I feel that I have). However, I am realizing that not everyone has followed the same road. Perhaps they decided that the path they were on was not what they wanted. Or perhaps they were not on the same path as I was to begin with. Especially going to a Christian high school, sometimes it is shocking to me to think that not everyone was a Christian, and therefore, there may be those who still don't know Christ or who have strayed from that upbringing. I am reminded everyone is not like I am and I must be sensitive to where each person is coming from, individually. Everyone is different. Not all went away from home, not all stayed away from home and not all have had to make life for themselves away from anything close to familiar. It is crutial when I return to do so with grace and gentleness while remembering everyone is not in my situation and everyone is different and blessed in their own ways.

I am also reminded of a statement that I was told while in college. My mentor said that she is so glad that she didn't have to go back to high school and that college was the best time of her life. At the time, I was only a year out of high school and I didn't really agree at the time. My first year of college was rough. But as I look back on it, I am very proud of the way my college career went. I am glad that high school was not the end. I am pleased with God's provision of CU for my higher ed. I can now actually agree with that statement - College was the best time of my life. As much as I enjoyed high school, I enjoyed and benefited from college EVEN more. Today, I was going though my photo box to find some photos from high school. I actually didn't find anything of what I was looking for, but found TONS of photos from college... My roommate and I my sophomore year. Photos from my summer with RISEN in 2000. The meet up between RISEN and ALIVE during that summer. Photos from the National Championship Team and Photos from Midnight Madness and our "band" uniforms. Photos from a "cheeky" event and other roommate doings from Jr Year. I have photos from Homecoming our Sr Year when Wendy was on Court. And photos from SGA retreats and outings. So much fun stuff. So MANY memories that I am proud of. Ones that have shaped me and made me who I am. I can't go back and change who I was in high school. But I am happy with who I have become through my journey of college and after college.


Above all, I am looking forward to our 10 year reunion. I'm looking forward to see who those old friends are today and to reminisce about those old days.