30th October 2010 / 3 comments

We all have friends from high school, you know those friends that you did everything with. You laughed, cried, shared your first boyfriend/girlfriend experience with, studied, and maybe even skipped school a time or two. While you are in high school you think nothing will ever change. You will still “hang out” together and have fun all the time.

Something does happen though. We grow up; we go to college or find a job. We find a partner, get married, and maybe even have kids. Life goes on and those bonds from high school get tested. I am sure that many bonds break – yes, you might reconnect at the 10th, 20th reunion, but it is never quite the same.

I had the opportunity last night to reconnect with some of those very friends. It had been over 20 years since I had last seen them. 20 years!! That was much longer than we were actually friends while in high school. What would it be like? Many of us had connected through some form of social media like Facebook, so we all saw the one sentence updates of what was going on in our lives, but what was it going to be like to actually meet again over dinner? It almost was like a blind date all over again!

There were 6 of us at that dinner – Donna, Tweedy, Debbie, Ro, Donna, and myself. All of us were very close through junior high and high school but I had not seen any of those friends for those 20 plus years. I knew that a few of them got together every now and then so this was not such a reunion, but this was the first time we all been back together in many years.

I arrived at the restaurant and hesitantly walked back to the room we had reserved. I was the first one there! Was that really a nervous feeling in my stomach? Seriously, these were my best friends. Was I not going to recognize someone? Had someone changed so much that maybe it was going to feel strange? I sat there with yearbooks in hand looking at the pictures and found myself instantly transformed back into that high school girl many years ago.

Within minutes everyone else had arrived and it was really unbelievable. Yes, we have all changed but for those three hours we were all our old selves again. It felt like we never lost touch or aged a day since we all saw each other last. We easily started laughing and talking about the days walking through the halls of our high school. I was fascinated that even after all those years we jumped right back where we left off. We laughed so hard and had so much fun last night. We relived so many memories, things I would have never recalled if it was not for all of us being there together compiling the memories. Wow, did we have some stories!

For three hours we were transformed back to 1983-84. It was the best three hours I have had in a long time.

As we all left, we promised we would get together soon, that we had so much fun and we needed to keep in touch and plan another date to get together. I really hope we do. I don’t want to wait 20 more years to see these amazing people again.

Debbie, Ro, Donna, Tweedy, Donna, and Jean – thank you so much for a wonderfully funny night. I should have known that it was going to all work out. You were and still are some of my best friends ever!

Tags: 1984 hudson high reunion