Its been ten years already?! Plans are being made for our big Class of 2004 10-year reunion, and thinking about it has only surfaced hundreds of high school memories! Singing at pep rallies, getting caught kissing a boy in a sound-proof choral room by my math teacher, the horrible but unifying experience of 9/11, graduation, when what part I got in the Spring musical was the only thing in the world that mattered, Homecoming, Prom…
I’ve been digging up pictures to send to our class president, and naturally, my favorite ones are from our school dances! I had very particular criteria about what I would and I wouldn’t wear, and ten years ago, you’d almost be crazy to buy your dress from overseas, but nowadays, you can find gorgeous dresses from all sorts of flashy sites like JenJenHouse, and not worry a bit about falling into a hoax!
A lot of things have changed since the early 2000’s. There were plenty of us without cell phones, our school assignments rarely involved a lot of technology besides a graphing calculator, and I hadn’t even heard of Facebook till the summer we graduated. We had different fears and different aspirations than kids nowadays. I wouldn’t have even known what to envision had someone told me I’d be a giveaway blogger in 10 years!
Life was more simple and yet extremely complicated! How refreshing it is to not worry about how on earth I’d be able to not look and smell like a man after 1st period gym and only 5 minutes between classes. What a relief to not be stressing out of my mind about AP tests, getting straight A’s, and filling out scholarship applications. What a heavy load for a 16-year-old!
I think the most important thing, whether I make it to my reunion or not, is that my regrets are small and few. I surely could’ve befriended a few more kids in the lunch room, went out of my way to make life easier for my teachers, and put in more service hours, but for the most part, I’m glad that the majority of the memories I have of high school are thrilling and sweet. I only hope I can look at my life this way when I’m at the end of it all without huge regrets of missed opportunities. Here’s to living life as if the next class reunion is always right around the corner!
