You wonder sometimes why they make you go to high school when you’re 13-18 years old, in the throes of so much change – mentally, physically, emotionally, etc. Sure, each decade of your life has transformative events, but your teens, good god – possibly the most change you’ll experience in the shortest amount of time. Although having kids is probably an equal game-changer.

This past weekend we attended our 20th high school reunion. That statement alone kind of blows my mind, because I am not quite sure what happened to those 20 years. Whew. I am lucky when it comes to reunions because my wife is in the same high school class I was. So there’s no worry if I wanted to go off and talk to someone, because she got to go off and catch up, too! It was nice not having to worry about “leaving your spouse alone.”

I have to say, it was a grand time. I actually found myself wishing it could have lasted another few hours, because I didn’t get to talk to quite a few people that I really wanted to catch up with, so that kind of bummed me out. The reason? I ended up talking to one of my closest friends for nearly an hour, because I don’t even get to talk to him much anymore, given the twins, life, work, etc.

Additionally, a treasured teacher showed up and this was, perhaps, the most special part of the evening for me. Back in the fall of 1985, I gave this poor, 24 year old English teacher all kinds of hell and she weathered it all, stuck by me and proved herself a beacon for me during a somewhat dark time. I mean, I wasn’t on the verge of death or addiction or anything, but I could have really gone into the ditch. She was there for me. So to see her and talk to her was terrific. She reminded me of many good times as well. One of my only clear, concise memories of high school graduation day was hugging her and knowing I had not just a teacher, but a friend. We’ve stayed in touch through the years though I don’t think I’d seen her since that graduation day. What a thrill to see her and hear about her own kids and her life and tell her about mine.

The rest of my classmates, well, like I said, it’s too bad we all couldn’t have been in school together after the awkwardness of our teens, because everyone looks great, got along and seems happy. We all go through our daily struggles and certainly there are people who weren’t there, but the turnout was generally quite impressive and it truly seemed like we all enjoyed ourselves. It was awesome to catch up with some people whom I’ve known almost as long as my own family – shout out to you Lancaster peeps – we experienced a lot of firsts together.

Can’t wait for 25. Twenty-freaking five! Are you serious?