So I was randomly bored this morning, and decided to look up the attendance list for one of those highschool reunions I can never manage to scrape together either the money or a halfway decent reason to show up at. Of the folks who were actually added to the publicly available list of people who were going to be there at this year’s meetup, for like the first time ever I actually saw more names on there I knew than those I didn’t. At first glance it almost looked like the school roster for my first or second year there.
In no particular order, people who’s names came up on that list consisted of: two x-girlfriends, one x-girlfriend’s assumedly current fiance, one close friend who wanted to end up a girlfriend, several good friends of mine and theirs, and a couple people I only really knew of by reputation. This for a school who’s history goes back to before my grandparents were born, nevermind me. I had to read the thing twice to make sure I didn’t unintentionally get into something potentially bad for the mental faculties. And a third in case I missed something. I didn’t.
I’m not sure if it says more for the folks I used to run with at that school or the ones who went there before us, but I feel just a little bit older than I should after seeing that many familiar names showing up there. And the ironic part, if given half a chance I’d at least for thirty seconds consider reestablishing contact with a couple of them. Not that I’d do it–nothing says hanging onto the past like looking up old highschool folks you haven’t even thought about in damn near a dozen years in some cases, but I’ve been known to at least consider it.
I may or may not at some point go into details on why I’ve kind of left that school behind, but for the moment, I’ll just say for as much crap as it was required to put up with while I was going there, there were a lot of good reasons for me to stick around. Some of those good reasons were on that attendance list. But, that almost feels now like it was a completely different lifetime–I’ve kind of seen and done a hell of a lot since then. In a lot of ways I wonder if I’d even still get along with some of those people had we kept in touch, or gotten back in touch after this long not being. Still, it might have been nice to spend a weekend catching up with some of them. Now if only I’d been able to aford it, and care enough about the rest of the school to actually bother going. Oh well, maybe next time. Or the time after. Or not. In the meantime, if I end up hearing from folks I used to run with, I’ll burn that bridge when I get there. I’d just like to know who turned on the highschool flashback. And, if next time they’ll warn me first.