Better late than never.....10 Years Later

So, I know that it has been almost a month since I went home (to Valdosta) for my ten year high school reunion but I promise that I just now have had a minute to sit down and write about it. Honestly, as I am writing this now, I have been awake for over 27 hours, so bear with me.



So I worked all night on Monday night, April 28th then came home and packed and rested (for my own personal record, so I remember years from now.....this was one of the most awkward afternoons ever!!) and left that evening to drive home. It's about a 4 hour drive to Quitman, to my Grandparent's house. This is my absolute favorite drive in the world. I can't decide if it is really as beautiful as I think, if the weather really does get better and the grass greener or if I really just love going home so much. I guess it doesn't matter, I just love it. This one was particularly wonderful. Naturally, I started thinking back to ten years ago.



You have to know (and, yes, I am aware that I have covered this before....luckily, it's my blog and I can write whatever I want as many times as I want ;^) that I loved high school. There were only fifteen people in my little Christian, private school and that most of us went to school together for most of our lives. Most of them were more like family than just friends. At my reunion I got to see some people that I haven't gotten to see in years. I also got to meet some of their spouces and children that I had never even seen.



The first part of the week that I was there I got to spend some wonderful time with my family and some friends (including little Avie, who had just come home from the hospital!!). On Friday I went out to the school and there was a wonderful dedication with the entire school for Adam. Two of our old teachers were there (in uniform might I add...way to go Brad and Mr. Nelson!) and we put a new flag up and dedicated a bronze plaque. It was really nice for all of the kids who are basically living the same lives that we were ten plus years ago to get to hear what they had to say and remember Adam. I don't pass many flags, hear many patriotic songs, or the pledge of allegiance when I don't think about him. We all really missed him and wished he could have been there that weekend.

On Saturday some of us from the class met at the park and had a picnic while the kids played on the park equitment. That night we all met at Austin's (a steak house...not sure if it's a chain or not, I've only eated there in Valdosta) There was Melissa (Lee) and her husband John, Nikki (Copeland) and her husband Ryan, Patience (used to be McMullen, her husband Brad is the principal at one of the local high schools and he had to be at their prom that night so she was my "plus one" ;^), Matt Malone and his wife, Nick Smith and his wife, and Justin Lightsey and his wife were all there. We had seen Claire at the memorial but she had told us that she wasn't going to be able to make it to the dinner. Amy, Kristen, Justin, Blake and Rachael weren't able to make it. We had the back room and when we walked in they had all these round tables set up. Instead of sitting at three different tables (and let's all be honest, probably yelling back and forth :) we pulled three together and all sat together. It was so fun!! Seriously, I laughed so hard and I am pretty sure we scared that waiters! I forgot how funny we all were when we got together!

Instead of getting all mushy and sharing my feelings, I thought I would share some of my memories from high school.

~We used to get together on Monday nights and watch wrestling. Seriously, some of the girls got into it more than the boys. I personally loved Sting, when he had the white face paint :^)

~One time our girl's basketball team lost by 100....not they scored 100 on usm they BEAT us BY 100. It gets worse, one time we didn't score at all. It has to be said in our defense, that we only played three quarters due to an injury that held up the game(by request I am not going into details with that injury....you can thank me later Audrey!). I still remember both of these games, who we played, and where we played.

~Before ballgames, we all went over to the Norman's house and ate baked potato's then all the girls would go into their office and sing around the piano. Ok, now that I typed that out, I realize how "Little House on the Prarie" it sounds but, it's true. And, we always sang 'The Rose', please don't ask because I have no idea.

(I must break in here and ask WHY are all the things I am remembering, NOT things that I feel I can publish on the internet, even after ten years??? However, they are bringing me so much joy that I am actually sitting here crying I have been laughing so hard!!)

~One time on our way home from a birthday party we had just dropped someone off and before a stop sign we ran over those bumps in the road. You know, the ones where there are lots of little bumps and the make an annoying sound when you go over them? There are usually about three of them before a stop sign. I can't tell you exactly what they are, because I still don't know. Anyways, we had gone over some and someone asked what they were for. Rachael piped up and in perfect Rachael fashion said that she always thought that they were for blind people that drove...you know so they knew when they were coming up on a stop sign. I have to tell you, in her defense, that she was one of the smartest people in our class. She just had "blonde moments" Whoo. Always good for a laugh.

~For some reason, now unknown to me, Burt Copeland (who was our basketball coach and teacher) nicknamed me 'Track Cow' The funny thing is that I was in no way a cow, I wasn't fat, and the only time I ever ran track was one year when he made everyone that was on the team run track in the off season. I hate to run. Who knows.

Allright, I have found this a lot harder to do than I thought I would. For one reason, as I have already explained, even though it has been 10 years, I don't feel that a lot of our stories are blogger appropriate. Or, they are really long and require too much pre-explaining. Plus, it HAS been over ten years! Actually, I am posting this on May 22, 2008 and I am almost positive that our graduation was on May 22, 1998. Is it weird that I just teared up when I typed that? What in the world? It's 2:04 and I'll bet I was awake this time two years ago, ironically, tearing up too. Not because I was sad, because I was excited about graduating, just like all seniors are. The difference is, as excited as I was about all that lay ahead, I knew what I was losing. For any of you that are reading this that added to my experience that was high school, thank you. I believe that there is no one in the world who has better memories from that time in their life than I do.

Pictures to come when I find what I did with my camera......