My 10 year high school reunion....

In some ways it feels like it's been an eternity since I graduated high school, and in others it seems like it was just yesterday. Well, in any case, May marked 10 big ones and since our class president had a baby in April, our reunion got pushed to September.

I went to school in Kingsland, AR...a very small town for anyone who may not know. Kingsland, whose crowning achievement is that it is the birthplace of Johhny Cash, had a population of 449 people during the 2000 census. I was born and raised in New Edinburg, AR which is about 8 miles away, but the NE school closed down the year I started kindergarten. Our school consisted of about 400 people headstart thru seniors, including faculty and staff. Needless to say, everybody knew everybody...and their business.

I went to school for 13 years with mostly the same people. Of course we had a few classmates who would come or go over the years and at our 6th grade graduation we had I think the largest class in all of Cleveland County with either 36 or 38. By the time we were seniors, our numbers had dropped down to 24, and I think only 22 of us actually received diplomas. Regardless of whether we all liked one another or not, we were friends. We had been through alot together, and although many of us have moved away from home, we keep in contact to some extent and still feel a closeness that is very familiar...almost like family.

Today I had the pleasure of contacting our Senior class sponsors and inviting them to our reunion. One, Mr. Powell, I didn't know very well at all. He was a coach that came in my Junior or Senior year, and I never really had any dealings with him until our Sr. Trip. I emailed him and gave him all the info on the reunion and he replied that he already had a commitment that day, wished he could be there, and said that he had been married for 8 years, and had a daughter that would be 3 in January. Then, he asked if I had "any little ones"....which made me laugh out loud. I responded that I had married my highschool sweetheart almost 7 years ago, and that we have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and are expecting baby number 3 in February. I'm not sure why this amused me so much, but it did. I suppose he wasn't much older than us 10 years ago, I'd say mid twenties. But, by the time I graduated Matthew and I had been dating for almost 3 years, and I think there were some people that were already growing impatient that we weren't at least engaged.

One person in particular, our English/Journalism teacher, Sandra Smead, asked Matthew constantly when he was going to marry me. I suppose in 2002 when our wedding announcement finally came out in the paper she was extremely happy. To me, being 28 and expecting my third child doesn't seem that strange. Maybe it is, but I know at least 2 of my classmates have already had their third child. Maybe it has something to do with a small country town and it's mentality, but I've always wanted to have my kids before I turned 30. I'm glad I felt that way because as tired as they make me these days, I don't think I could keep up with little ones ten years from now!

This has turned into a very long blog, but I'm feeling very nostalgic today, and it has been a long time since I posted anything. I so wish that Mr. Powell could make it to our reunion. I bet the look on his face when he saw all of our kids would be priceless!