High School

Such weirdness.

I missed my 20th high school reunion this month. Well, what I mean to say is that it happened, and I didn't go. At the time, I didn't really think I was missing anything. I don't have a lot of fond memories from high school, and I'm still in touch with my very best friends from that period in my life—people I played D&D with, incidentally. I find that I am still intimidated by people who remind me of the kids who intimidated and bullied me in middle and high school—both adults and teenagers. Dwelling on what I was like 20 years ago doesn't seem to be a productive way to spend my time, my emotional energy, or the couple of hundred bucks for a plane ticket.

You already know where this is going, don't you? I've mused about midlife crisis on these pages enough that you can see it from a mile away. I didn't, though.

I just spent maybe an hour browsing through the bulletin that the reunion organizers put together, compiled from information that people sent in and a questionnaire people answered. There were a lot of faces I didn't recognize, but a lot of people that were really important to me 20 years ago, that I haven't seen or spoken to since, and that, based on the stuff they wrote, seem like they're still really cool and interesting people. It makes me sad that I've lost touch with them. There are some I have seen more recently—I performed a wedding for one good high school friend as late as, oh, maybe 1996 or so? Oh God, that was 10 years ago. I just learned from the bulletin that she has two adorable kids, ages 6 and 3. 

Hrm. I don't know where this is going. (I'm pretty sure that was an emotional floodgate closing, my psyche's way of saying, "Let me stew on this for a while before you consciously explore any more.")

In related news, one of those two best friends from high school has just started his own blog, leading off with an entry that follows on something I said yesterday. David is probably the smartest person I know, and I can always count on a lot of thoughtful conversation whenever we manage to get together. Though he's been more or less out of the gaming loop since we stopped gaming together regularly, he's credited as the "military adviser" for my Incursion article in DRAGON (he has a Ph.D. in military history) and he also helpfully reviewed both my novel and my short story at various stages of writing. In high school, we drove our 10th-grade biology teacher absolutely insane with a constant stream of puns. So that's David. Read his blog. Assuming he continues to post there.