Mustang Roundup

I started this off as "Quickie" on Friday, but I'm back now to make it a full-fledged blog entry.

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A lot can happen in 10 years. People get married, divorced, have kids. Countries go to war, governments change hands, economies fluctuate wildly. Technology advances, body parts get replaced by plastic and metal. New discoveries are made. But perhaps the biggest thing about 10 years going by is that it's possible for nothing to change at all.

And that pretty much sums up my high school reunion. The popular kids were still the popular kids. The smart kids still the smart kids and the party kids still the party kids. People fell into their regular old groups, and it was an interesting phenomenon to observe. Not that it was bad or anything...just amusing.

Some people were so drunk that they probably won't remember they were there. The food was lacking and there was a closed bar, but the venue was nice if a little small for our event. The DJs played cheesy music that wasn't really 1996-specific as it was late-'80s-specific, but who cares of you're jammin' with a glass of Cutty Sark that's probably been behind the counter since they actually SOLD Cutty Sark on this side of the country? Overall, it was really just being able to talk to people that made it worthwhile.

One classmate just bought a $1 million home. Another is on his way to a PhD. and yet another has five children. Careers spanned from former boxing promoter to People magazine correspondent to Iron Man athlete. When people asked me what I do and I said I'm a newspaper editor, most said, "Of course! You were always a good writer!"

Which is weird, because I don't remember writing being one of my public focal points in high school. I mean, I could ace English papers and the like, but I didn't go around telling everyone. I always thought people would remember me as a music geek more than a wordsmith.

But who knows. I've been known to "forget" things sometimes. :0) I would say I have changed though. Much more outgoing. Much more perspective on life. I think I had to grow into myself because I was secretly very sensitive when I was younger, but was surrounded by thicker-skinned and confident-to-the-point-of-cocky people.

I went to a high school that prided itself on its...shall we say money? The school is in a well-to-do town, where many people's parents work in Silicon Valley and own six-bedroom homes built within the past 10 years. However, my parents came to the area in the '70s, when property was quite a bit cheaper, so we didn't need to have tons of money to be there. Consequently, I was not one of the "rich" kids. We weren't poor, but neither did a I get a brand-new SUV on my 16th birthday. Yadadamean?

So, anyway, neither was I the most popular kid in school. Or even slightly popular. I was heavy and a big chorus geek who enjoyed foreign languages. I read voraciously, kept up pretty good grades (lettered in academics my senior year), mostly stayed out of trouble and no, did not go to prom or senior ball. Had some friends and a boy who made life a little miserable for a while, but hey, who didn't have an experience like that in HS? That's what makes it HS.

I was friends with a few cheerleaders, we didn't hang out but always cracked jokes in class, and I was known for my biting sarcasm (which obviously has not abated one iota). I fudged some grades for my friends when I was a French T.A. and yes, occasionally sought "help" on my physics tests (before I dropped physics altoghether...yuck!). I worked weekends at the movie theater and sometimes let my friends in free. I climbed up the ladder at the theater from concessionist/usher to projectionist, assistant manager trainee and assistant manager. That's were I met boy #2.

After graduating HS, I went to junior college thinking I wanted some sort of career in music. OK, I'll be honest, I wanted to be a concert pianist, even though I hated practicing/memorizing and had horrible stage fright. Chalk it up to another pie-in-the-sky Aquarian ideal. But even Aquarians have to get real now and then, so my second year of JC I took an interest in journalism and ended up on the school paper, where I was the features and news editor for two semesters and the editor in chief for a year.

Won some awards, worked full-time, basically lived the boring and mostly tame life of your typical over-achiever. Boy #2 was always getting in trouble and needing me to bail him out of or help fix bad situations, but I always thought that's just the way things are in relationships...they are work and not always easy, right? So I just plodded on, doing my thing, trying to do my best.

I dropped about 60 pounds my first year of college (I've gained back about 10-15) and kept my nose to the grindstone. I wasn't interested in drinking or partying. I always thought that it was because I just didn't feel like ruining my life. And then when I thought about it some more this weekend, I concluded it was because of this:

When you're not popular, you don't have crazy expectations put on you by other people. You know that when you leave high school, life is going to be different, but you're pretty ready for it because you're already living a down-to-earth life. Some people leave the "bubble" of high school, and all of a sudden they're just another face in the crowd, not the homecoming king or the star cheerleader that everyone knows and loves. And the bursting of this bubble can be pretty harsh, because all they've ever known is "the good life." They don't know disappointment and obscurity. I guess what I'm saying is, I've always known what to expect from the world, and haven't needed anything to help me escape it.

Anyway, after three years in JC (I took an extra year to spread out some of the work because I was overloading myself), I transferred to a four-year college, worked as the editor in chief of the university publication, earned my BA in journalism and went on to the chain of newspapers where I now work. Boy #2 finally severed my last nerve over two years ago and I gladly rid my life of him. I met Ryan, the perfect person for me, and was finally surprised to learn what a real relationship is supposed to feel like. I've never had someone save all of my e-mails before. :0)

It will be interesting to see everyone again in another 10 years. That, I feel, is when the true test of time will manifest. We will all be close to 40! And doing who knows what. Now THAT will be creepy. But I can take it.

*BTW, if you're wondering about the title of this blog, our mascot was the Mustangs.