Brain Gets Ready For 25 Year High School Reunion

When I got the notification for the events of my 25th high school reunion earlier this year, I paused. Really? 25 years already? Sure I've got some gray in my beard and kids of my own, but it sure doesn't feel like I've been out of high school for 25 years. Despite the fact the reunion is bound to make me feel 'old', I'm looking forward to it. A quarter of a century can change a lot.

It's not that I didn't like high school, but I wouldn't categorize it as 'the best time of my life'. For some, perhaps it was. What wasn't there to like? Friends, sports, parties. My memories of high school are slightly different. I was an introvert for much of my four years at Anamosa High School. Confidence was a word I wasn't familiar with. I know I wasn't the only one who faced that issue. It wasn't until later in my junior and then in my senior year that I started to become the person I am today. I was a band nerd. I wear the badge proudly. But I was good at it. It was something I was known for. And in high school being known for something is a good thing.

My senior year I went out for speech competition. It turned out I was good at that too. It even got me a part-time job at a local radio station in town. Guess what that led to. A career. I didn't have a ton of friends in high school, but the ones I did have were close. Several remain close to this day.

I went to my 10-year reunion but missed my 20 year. I'm looking forward to seeing classmates, even the ones I occasionally run in to from time to time. Which ones of us have changed? Are we essentially the same people we were back then? What kind of lives are people living? I look at the young faces featured in our class photo. We thought we'd made it. Climbed to the top of the mountain. We thought we knew everything. It turns out our journey was just beginning. It continues to this day. May it continue for many more years to come.

Heres to you, Anamosa High School class of 1993!