Facebook and High School Reunions

As the years have flown by ever so quickly since high school, it has been a pleasure to hear from old friends and acquaintances from back in the day. In all honesty, it takes me a moment or two to recall their names. And, if I cannot recall their name, it requires a perusal of my high school yearbook to recall the faces.

The crazy thing is that most of my old high school friends look so different. I look at some of the pictures on Facebook, which is how most of us have reconnected, and say to myself, “I use to have a crush on her!”

Now, I am not trying to be critical or cruel by any stretch of the imagination. I have put on more than a few pounds myself and I do not have either the body or good looks of Adonis, Denzel Washington, or whatever god-like celestial phenom that people hunger after. Rather, I am surprised to see that some people have really let go.

You hear in the news that we are an overweight nation of lazy good-for-nothings falling behind the rest of the world in technology, education, finances, and all kinds of important cultural markers of success. I think it is normal to react to the news like a good American with a healthy respect and acknowledgment that we are not the best at everything; however, there is a natural, internal sense of regret and disappointment to find that maybe it is all true. Well, not all of it, but some of it.

My friends played sports, volunteered in student government, sang in the choir, danced at events, participated in acting, student groups, and even protested by walking out of class. We were an active group of little punks. We were sometimes naive and grandiose in our thinking at that time, but we only wanted what most high school people wanted – fun, excitement, maybe even a real chance at success.
Not that seeing a group of pictures and chatting for a moment or two really gives you the sense of what they have accomplished. Some of us are doctors, lawyers, teachers, servers, flight attendants, business people, and the sort.

Unfortunately, some of us did not make it well past high school because of drugs or some other series of serendipitous events that led to their demise physically, spiritually, and literally.

At the same time, those of us who did survive with our righteous minds intact, lucid and sanguine in a world that we call home, we at some point between the netherworld of the long past since forgotten and today, the sometimes brutal chaos of right now, said, “Fuck it!”

Not all of us! Just some of us gave up. I am surprised because they, a good portion of us, did not have that attitude during high school. We were care free and happy, looking for the next opportunity. Some of us also, including me at times, did not give a hoot and thought very little about the prospects of a time better than the present. For those who remained pessimistic about the future, then it makes sense for them to maintain that sense of doubt and a persnickety outlook.

I’m talking about the leaders and teachers for tomorrow who seemed to have given all they got to someone else. Changed too many diapers, arrested too many thugs, argued too many cases, and cleaned too much laundry and too many dishes to care anymore. We sometimes have given to our families, children, work, society as a whole, or whoever else out there looking for some tenderness, affection, or admiration without giving back to the one who sacrificed so much - to me, to you, to ourself.

You do not need to be in tip-top condition ready for the Amazing Race or in training for the tenth triathlon since recovering from whatever conquered addiction. No, I am not trying to say that at all. But, like the Otis Redding song, “Try a little tenderness.” But, please my sisters, brothers, and others, turn some of that same tenderness back to yourself.

Doctors say it all the time. Get a little exercise, take time away from the television, get away from whatever stress is out there. My high school friends looked happy for the most part, but I was simply disappointed because they did not look healthy. Some had the same hairstyles and dress in similar kinds of clothes. Others went from a size two or ten to a sixteen dress or a fifty-two inch waist in pants.

But . . . Wait a gosh darn minute. Let’s not even pick on the overweight!

How about those skinny-fat people out there smoking up a whole carton of cigarettes and dressing like who did it and left? The box hair cut, parachute pants, Gerri curls, high-top fades, high waist pants, skin-tight acid wash jeans with the bottoms rolled up, Kappa shoes (actually they’re making a comeback), Velcro tennis shoes, and boom boxes all went out with Purple Rain, Billy Jean, Punk Rock, Kid N Play, and The Cure.

Cannot leave out people who did not care enough, so they let their feet get so damn rough and scaly someone invented the Pedicure Egg to soften up those dry cracked heels.

Come on people! I love y'all, but damn, damn, damn!

Please do not get mad at me for stating the obvious. You know when you see someone looking clammy, out of shape, or not themselves, you are thinking, “What happened to you!”

Hell yeah, we got issues going on in our complicated and difficult lives. I wish that we would capture that bit of cheer from yester year and bring it to the present. Then, we might see those smiling faces, bright and glowing in those black and whites, sometimes color photos, from high school yearbooks.

We find that we are refreshed and avoid looking and feeling beaten down by a tough and unforgiving world.