High School Reunions

Do you embrace the opportunity to reconnect with old high school classmates or dread the thought entirely? 

I recently received an invitation to a high school graduating class reunion in my old home town.  Although I graduated with a high average, that year was not a good one for me.  I didn't even attend graduation or the prom.  

• Hands up if high school was one of the most awkward times in your life. 

• Hands up if you can't remember half of the people in your graduating class. 

I had some good teachers - three that I remember who stirred that love of art, reading for exploration and... escape.

As for classmates, I remember few.  I can't even match names to faces or recall how our lives intertwined.

• I recall the awkward attentions from a shy redheaded boy with whom I went on a movie date the summer before.  I think about "what if" I had continued to date him instead of the tanned, blonde Adonis who swept me off my feet.  

• I think about the short, skinny boy I sat beside in grade 12 business math and whom I tried my best to help with algebraic formulas (the kind that mattered in real life).  He had a physical disability that affected the way he walked.  I thought I had it bad.  I found out years later that he  committed suicide.  I wonder if it was due to his disability, of giving up on life or that he was bullied into adulthood. 

I too have memories of exclusion and subtle bullying.  They were not as noticeable as the onslaughts one encounters in middle school but they were there.  If you didn't look a certain way, wear the right clothes, if you lived on the wrong side of the tracks or your family was poor, you were not included in certain cliques. 

On the funny angle, I have thoughts of the movie Romy and Michele's High School Reunion where two quirky ladies pretend to be successful business women when attending their high school reunion.  They claimed to have invented the Postit then dug themselves into deeper holes and embarrassments.  

I remember spending many hours in school libraries and public libraries.  I remember reading A LOT.

As it would happen, my current work schedule will not allow for me to attend the reunion.  In my heart, I would like to reconnect with a few people once again, to catch up from where we left off.  Maybe in five or ten years.

I may just become one of those big city tourists who invade Georgian Bay during the summer.  I fondly remember the Bay, the canoe rides, nature treks and carefree life of our early teens.

Thanks for dropping by.  Meander on over to an excerpt from The Year of the Rabbit, a novel about fate, family and forgiveness.  There is much mention of the refreshing Georgian Bay.

• You can download a free ebook sample from Smashwords.  
• If you have an iPad, you can download from the iBookStore for 99 cents.  (Please note:  It is incorrectly identified as children's fiction).  
• If you have a Sony eReader, get a copy of the novel here. 

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