Unofficial Reunion

When I stop and think about high school seems like such a long time ago. I remember a few years ago feeling old when I looked at current high school students and realized how young they were. Recently, I’ve realized the same thing about college students but that is neither here nor there. About a month or so ago, I reconnected with some old friends from high school (actually, middle school: Christine Ma and Matt Williams) and we realized that ten years ago this month, we graduated high school. We knew that we wouldn’t have an official reunion because our class president was MIA. So, offhandedly, we mused about having an unofficial 10-year reunion. While I didn’t think it would happen, the wheels were set in motion by Christine stalking people’s e-mail addresses off of Facebook and sending out an eVite. The list was limited to about 20 people or so based on what we found, the fact that we wanted to invite people we actually talked to in High School, and my house had limits on how many people could fit into it.

There was quite a list of people that were invited (and I must say, it’s impressive how we were able to find contact information for most of these people, many of which we haven’t spoken to in ten years; without the advent of social networking websites, this would never have been possible). As we discussed the invite list, I found myself having trouble recollecting some people and worse, not remembering one person outright (a sign of age). In all, we had about 9 people show up (all of whom I remembered well) and it was actually a great time. Moreover, it was a eclectic group of people consisting of friends from middle school, high school, and even a revered, retired faculty member. All in all, everyone was doing well for themselves. We had a public school teacher (Matt Williams), a former Philadelphia Inquirer journalist in the midst of a job transition (Christine Ma), a surgeon (Arju Ali), a theatre sound engineer (Andi Sotzing), a pastor (Dave Matchette), a celebrity Philadelphia meteorologist (Erica Grow), a entrepreneur who is managing a carwash that was recently purchased by his family (Mike “Schneids” Schneider), a procurement commodity manager (me), and a retired English teacher turned community activist (Mr. Roger Hudak). It was a great bunch and we were able to reminisce, converse, and laugh for about 8 hours. There were a few others that I would have loved to see but it was a great group.

As I’ve thought about my educational experience, it was a good one overall. I really had a great time in both high school and middle school (which I have found is a rare thing). I’ve met so many great people and great educators who have impacted my life; many of which I will never see again. It seems like such a long time ago I was so afraid to enter the public school system in six grade; fretting over whether or not I would be able to get my locker open or whether I would find my next class. It’s amazing how you get older, all of those experiences that took seven years to build lump together as you get older.

In the ten year span since high school, we’ve all gone separate ways and established our own identities outside of the high school realm. What struck me were the diverse career paths that were in the room. More importantly, when I asked everyone whether or not they could ever imagined in high school they would be doing what they are today, no one could have predicted it which was ironic. I’m constantly amazed at how life never really goes as you predict and all of us were proof of that.