My 10 Year High School Reunion

So it has taken me a couple weeks to put my reunion into words. You never know what to really expect when you got to your reunion. You step out of your car with tons of butterflies in your stomach, and say to yourself, "Here we go..."

On the way over I was telling Jonathan about my freshman boyfriend, (first boyfriend) that dumped me a week before Homecoming. I had creatively made a garter for him and was so giddy only to feel totally rejected the next day. Luckily a senior felt bad for me and took me. So, the letters on the garter were switched from Mark to Jake..just switching around the "k" and adding the "j" and "e". So guess who the first person was to welcome me to the reunion??...Mark. Nothing like starting out the evening a little strange.


We walk in and luckily the first people that I find are my good friends, David and Chalise. Those were the people that I came to see and I felt a HUGE sense of relief that they were the first two people to welcome me. We scoped the room for a good hour sometimes in shock at how people have changed, and also spending the time trying to remember people with usually a "oh yeah.." attached at the end.

Chalise and I were neighborhood buddies and lived across a field from one another. We were the best of friends in junior high and both went through some awkward times for sure. We loved our Girbaud jeans, Genesis and Bryan Adams music, and had the best time prank calling. (So sorry for all those people we disturbed!) Together we roughed the puberty waters and through it all tried to figure out who we were. The one thing that she mastered best were the split bangs. Somehow she could get those things perfect and mine always flopped halfway through the day. (Only to find out that I was using the curling iron the wrong direction!) Chalise and I had our differences and somewhere and somehow we lost some good years in high school. It was so sweet to reunite and giggle like we were still 12.

David and I go back to 6th grade where we had every History and English class together until we were seniors. He was the braniac and I was lucky enough to have him as a study buddy. Not that I was not smart, but he was one of the chosen few that did not have to study. David soon after graduating revealed that he was gay and I lost touch with him. He thought I freaked out after hearing the news, (maybe I did a little) and then he was really gone for a good 11 years. I searched for him high and low through every means, and prayed that God would reunite us. Our reunion coordinators had a website where we could reconnect with people and that is where I finally found him. I nearly flipped. I e-mailed him through the site and learned that he had been in Houston the same amount of time as me. Go figure. David holds a special spot in my heart and I love that God was so gracious to allow me another chance.

Somehow reunions can make old insecurities flood right back in. I am a different person than I was in high school, and really I can only attribute that to the Lord instilling a confidence in me that was nothing I could apply on my own. So there I was not budging to the left or the the right as soon as I walked into the room. People for sure that knew me in in high school did not remember me now. Some of it could be attributed that I look totally different with my hair being short and blonde, but most of it was that they forgot who I was. Part of why I stepped into girls ministry was based on my junior high and high school years. Lord, help us that Satan can still attack us the same way he did 10 years ago.

So on a lighter note: If you are at all interested, two graduates from Mansfield High were on tv shows as of late. If you remember the show "I Want To Be A Hilton", the winner of that show, Jaret, graduated with us.

*On the show "Rollergirls", Sister Mary Jane was also a 1997 Mansfield graduate.



I think this reunion does it for me. I told Jonathan how thankful I was that he came with me about 3 times during the night. I am not sure this was something I would of liked to go to without him. I have reunited with two really good friends from high school and that was worth every penny.