Yesterday, it finally arrived.  It being a very preliminary announcement of my 20th class reunion in the summer of 2008.  I have been out of high school nearly 20 years.  Wow.

To be honest, my recollection of high school is somewhat hazy.  Sometimes I'll think of a person from my past and not remember if I knew them in high school or college ... people sort of blur together when you lose touch.  Certainly, I remember my old friends as well as the folks who made high school less than pleasant.  But there's an entire circle of folks that meld into this outer ring of "that short guy/girl who wore red lipstick/guy in the back of math class" status.  Those are probably the ones making the most money and living the happiest lives now.  :-)

I volunteered to set up an email list for the planning group (1 person thus far) and several folks have joined.  None of my old friends, but at least I do recognize most of their names.  I'm a bit gunshy about reconnecting.  Sometimes, you run into someone and really hit it off as adults ... that happened with my friend Amy who I met at age 4 and reconnected with about 5 or 6 years ago.  Sometimes, you run into someone who seems really cool in their adult persona, but things never move beyond the parking lot chatter at the Giant Eagle.  And, to be honest, sometimes you run into people and hope they lose your email address.  What sucks is when you don't have reunion parity --- I might think they are really cool adult persona types and they think I'm lose the email address type.  Or vice versa.  It is all very complicated.  I learned this after moving back to my hometown of West Mifflin at the age of 27.  Apparently, I look just like I did in high school (just fatter)  so I constantly ran into people from back in the day.  Literally, b/c they would stop short and say my name, while I was hoping they weren't going to jump in line ahead of me.  No clue as to who they were.  Fortunately, I'm adept at bluffing.

And, of course, there's the whole thing about coming out to another 200 or so people.  I know for a fact that there is one other lesbian from my graduating class.  I'm inclined to believe there are plenty more gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons lurking amongst the alumni.  And that's what I'm looking to know -- who turned out gay?  It is shallow and silly, I know.  But I'm curious.  I'm also curious as to who will be freaked out, shocked or appalled (hello quasi-Christians).  I should add that Ledcat is decidedly not excited about attending my reunion and is only slightly mollified that my friend Amy and her husband Sean are going to be there.  We mutually decided to try and determine whether the lesbians or the biracial couple get more attention. 

I'm really hoping people will pleasantly surprise me.  Really.  In spite of my bluster, there is something precious about reconnecting with someone from your childhood or youth.  I don't believe in reliving the glory days and I'm certainly not a proponent that people reach their peak at age 16, but it can be nice to be transported back to less complicated times.  Don't get me wrong -- my childhood was not something I would ever willingly relive, but there were moments ...

I'd like to get to know some of the grownup versions of my high school chums.  I bet they turned out to be really neat people.  And I'd like the chance to clear up some of the hazy memories with modern interactions.