The Year of My High School Reunion and Also When My Son Called Me Old

This year is the twentieth anniversary of my graduation from high school. I graduated in May of 1991. I remember when I graduated, my dad remarked how I graduated exactly twenty years to the day after he did. And I marveled about being out of high school for twenty years, being thirty-eight years old and having a child graduating high school. I could not wrap my head around it.

And yet, what seems like MAYBE five years later, here I am. Twenty years later. Wow. I did things differently than my parents. I did not give birth to my first child until I was thirty. I think that is partially why my brain can't wrap around my age. I still think I am the same age or just a few years older than college students. And then I realize I could legitimately be their mother. Whoa.

So, as I write and you read, my twenty year reunion is being planned. It was decided to have it in the fall in conjunction with the high school's homecoming game and festivities. I was asked to design a couple of logos for use on shirts, invitations and whatnot. As I was sitting at my computer this afternoon, playing around with different designs, Noah walked in and sat beside me.

"SHS Class of 1991? Wow! Is that when you graduated?"

"Yes, Noah. I graduated high school in 1991."

**pause**

"So... that's....uh....WOW! TWENTY YEARS!?"

"Yep! Twenty years. That is why we are having a reunion."

"Is the school still there?"

"What do you mean? Of course there is still a high school in my town!"

" No, I mean the BUILDING where you went to school. It must be pretty old!"

"Yes, the building is still there, but it is the middle school now. They built a new high school after I left."

"So, it is still actually a school, then?"

**getting irritated now**

"Yes, Noah, it is still a school. What is your point?"

"I just thought if you went to school there TWENTY YEARS AGO, it must have fallen down by now. That's really old."

Should I tell him our house was built in 1984?

A Note to Teenagers

I know all your little inside jokes are cute and hilarious to you and your friends, but please, for the love of Pete, think carefully before you write in your friends' yearbooks. Make sure what you write is timeless and mature and respectable.

Because, twenty years from now, you will be sitting on your couch next to your significant other looking at pictures on a social networking site (or holograms or whatever is appropriate at the time) of people you went to high school with. And your significant other will not remember someone and you will put out your yearbook to refresh his/her memory. You will carefully dust off the cover since it hasn't been opened in probably 10-15 years and show him the picture of the person of reference. THEN, you will go to the restroom and return to your significant other lying on the couch in a fit of hysterics laughing and making fun of various sentiments in your yearbook; making fun of various nicknames that seemed cute at the time, but are really stupid later. And then, he/she will gasp for air and begin reciting verbatim various messages.

Such as, " I love you, butt you don't love me." ( yes, "but" is spelled with two t's because that is how it was spelled in the yearbook making you wonder who your secret admirer with a spelling handicap was) And, "Forget about that dork, [boy's name here]" whom you actually DID forget about until being reminded of him in print, thankyouverymuch. And, " You are the weirdest person I know, but I love you anyway." And many many more...most referencing inside jokes you don't even remember. And finally, the lengthy submission from your boyfriend at the time ( aforementioned, "dork") and how even though you had only been dating less than a month at that point, he proceeded to post a warning in print- for all posterity and all eternity- to all other guys that you were his and belonged to no one else. That, " ...you touch, I break, YOU DIE!!!" Just like that. Who could have known you would break up with him a few months later for being a bit too possessive?

This is just a friendly warning to the younger generation and nothing that I actually know anything about. Because MY yearbook only includes submissions in iambic pentameter. And Latin.