High School Reunion: Life is a Vapor


Received an invitation today for my 30th High School Reunion. It is to be held on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. I already have plans to be biking out in Western Pa. with the family. I would have gone otherwise. It is not that I necessarily yearn to return to yesteryear but it is sometimes poignant to see people who were once so much a part of my daily life who know are as shadows.

Some people age well, some people don't. Being something early on tend to freeze a person. Better to be a late bloomer than an early one. In most cases, there is nowhere to go in worldy terms but down if your are the King or Queen of High School. You soon find out in college that nobody really cares who you were.

I tell students in my high school that all that they value about where they rank socially really won't matter down the road. That is not really entirely true. We carry with us the remembrance of where we stood like a scar. Even the most popular kids grapple with hidden insecurities, wondering if anyone really cares about them in the end. And the truth is, most people don't.

I read on a Facebook profile today on the 30th Reunion site of someone who was the girlfriend of a buddy in high school (they are now married) and she wrote something to the effect, "I am going to Hell but at least all of my friends will be there." That made me sad. I have kept in touch with only two friends from high school. That's it. All those friends who I thought were so cool and so worth valuing have fallen like leaves from a tree. Definitely not worth being in Hell with.

You know who I stay in touch with, the people who have made the most positive difference in my life? People I have met in Church. Of course I have met my share of small-soul jerks in Church, those pointy-heads whose craven spirituality amounted to little. Yet, I have mostly met fellow sinner/saints who have walked with me over time as friends. Even if we may not always stay in touch here on earth, I do look forward to that Reunion at the end of time.      

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