I’m feeling nostalgic today.  This weekend is the first Alumni Weekend for my high school, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends.  They sent out an email reminder about the weekend last night, and I looked through the names in the list.  I remember most of them, and it’ll be fun catching up a little bit.

I got an email from a girl in my graduating class tonight.  She wanted to know who else in our class of 15 or so would be there.  Of course, I have no idea.  She and I were really close friends in high school, and I haven’t seen her in a few years.  She’s got kids now.  I’ve got kids now.  Man, this growing up stuff is scary.

I remember when I was a kid, we’d go meet somebody my dad knew when he was growing up, and I’d have to smile and act well behaved while Dad and the long lost friend caught up with each other.  This weekend, I’ll be putting my kids through that misery.

They’ll probably not care that Mr. Crosby and I had loogie spitting contests when I was in high school, or that Mr. Robinett was my basketball coach, that Casey and I were in class together from grades 1-12, or that Marty and I were inseparable 13 years ago. I’m ok with that.  My hope is that they see the value of good, solid friendships that are easily rekindled after years of silence. Those good friends we have are too hard to come by.

The trivial bits about these people I’ll see this weekend are just the surface of the relationship that exists below.  Mr. Crosby was the teacher that you could really relate to.  Mr. Robinett was always encouraging me and challenging me to do my best.  Casey is one of the oldest friends I have.  And Marty is that one guy that I could always talk to about anything.

We’ll all be together again this weekend, and it should be a lot of fun.  We’ll have fun laughing and talking and remembering our younger years.  And if there are any loogie spitting contests, I’m quite confident that I’ll be able to defend my championship with honor.