20 Years Young

This summer is my 20th High School reunion - yikes. I know there are many people who look back at High School as a nightmare they would never consider reliving. I am not one of those people. Middle School was truly awful, but High School was so much fun and I have really wonderful memories of that time.

I had two best friends in High School - Greg and Maria. Maria actually attended a different school, but we performed together in the local community theater. Greg and Maria are both Catholic. Though we did not share the same faith, we shared the same values and because of that, I never felt any pressure around them to be anything more or less than just me.

I attended a pretty laid back High School. I felt no pressure to wear the latest fashions or have the latest gadgets. My hair was straight and long - I don't think I got it cut at all during those four years. I attended early morning seminary at the church from 5:30-6:30 am and then school started about 7:00. Almost every day, I wore a pair of my Dad's pajama bottoms (pegged of course) a t-shirt and animal earrings. I had a huge collection of tacky wooden animal earrings. I wore no make-up. Clearly, I had no care for what others thought of me - frankly, I think I was too tired to give it much thought.


Greg and I shared a big locker in the band room which we decorated with wacky photos pulled from vintage National Geographic magazines. I hung out with the chorus/band/drama crowd though I was on the cross country ski team as well (I was terrible). I was kind of a nerd. I did not really date or go to parties other than cast parties. I had a blast.

I have never laughed so much as I did in High School. We were not always model students - one time we "borrowed" MJ's Dad's car and took the day off (I had excellent parent handwriting skills and wrote us all excused absences) to travel up to Montreal Canada for the day. Another time we pulled our friend Lena out of school, phoned an early dismissal to Maria's school (without her knowledge - she was told her Mom was coming to pick her up for a forgotten dentist's appointment) and then drove over and kidnapped her from the front of her school for a picnic in some farmer's field. Our exploits never got us into any trouble because we were model students - mostly.


I have so many fond memories from those years - lots of All-State and All-New England Music Festivals, a student exchange trip to Russia, theater and musicals with talented friends, hanging out in the little hall by the band room before school . . .

Maria is now married and living in Indiana with her three gorgeous children and husband. She still performs and teaches voice. Greg lives in a beautiful condo in Boston and travels with world as The International Man of Furniture. As soon as he wins the lottery, we are headed out on a year-long trip around the world. Greg was in town on a business trip this past weekend. We spent Saturday catching up and reminiscing about all of the fun we had in High School. We dug up a lot of old photos which I have been posting on facebook including photos of Greg and I from Prom and the Winter Ball. I made lemon bars (Greg's favorite) and Saturday evening, we took the kids out to dinner at Mai Village.

I hope my children find some really wonderful friends to help them navigate the challenges of High School. What do you think? Should we go to our 20th reunion? It is in Vermont in August. Part of me thinks it would be fun, but a lot of our good friends were either a year older or a year younger.


(pretty sneaky that you cannot see my chunky face in this photo - must stop eating lemon bars immediately)