Getting old, and so is everyone else...

Sometimes you like to convince yourself that your age is static and unchanging. You look in the mirror everyday and you really don't see any changes, so you deceive yourself into thinking that you look pretty much the same as you always have.

That is, until you go to your 20th high school class reunion. Nuts. I'm getting old. It's not that everyone looked decrepit or anything. The people that were there looked good, nary a wheel chair or walker to be seen. One qualifier, all of us there, with the exception of those who married spouses younger than us, were clinging to the relative youth of our 30's and in a short year or two, will be dragged kicking and screaming into middle age.

Seriously, we had a good time. High school seems both like it happened only yesterday, but that yesterday was a long time ago. I'd like to think we've grown up with growing older. I won't lie, some of the old grudges and tensions that occurred at PCHS 20 years ago were still there, just under the surface. Out of a class of 70 and change, there are bound to be some personality conflicts. Yet, for a few hours, we were mature enough to let the past be the past and be glad we could be together again.

Walking in the room, I saw faces that reminded me of words that I said and things that I did that I wish I could take back or erase, as easy as the delete key on my keyboard. I also remember the words and actions of others that hurt me, as well. Fortunately, graduation day comes and you can leave a lot of your false starts and regrets behind. You establish an identity that barely resembles who you tried or thought you wanted to be.

Cheers to the PCHS Class of '88. Be well, all. I hope to see many of you again down the road some day, at another reunion. We can share pictures of children, and good grief, some of us will have pictures of grandchildren. Holy crap. I'm old.