High school reunions are remarkable events.
They bind that awkward yet remarkable time in our lives known as
adolescence to who we are today as adults.
Yet while attending the reunion itself, for those fleeting hours we
exist in a bubble containing who we once were and who we've become. It's certainly weird, but it's a lot of fun
as well.
Attending my 25th high school reunion this weekend enabled 100 former
classmates and me to live that bubble.
We wore nametags with pictures from our graduation yearbook. We sought to recognize one another...in some
cases easier than others. And we caught
up on a quarter-century's worth of life events while also remembering our Fast
Times at Handsworth High.
When we left that evening, we renewed friendships and shared special
memories. But I also found myself
thinking about what these past 25 years have been about, and the power of
potential that exists in the next 25 years.
I did my best to encapsulate 1987-2012 in the following alliterative
tripartite structure:
First, for virtually all of us after high school, our focus continued to be
on learning. For some, we went on
to higher education while others immediately entered the workforce. No matter what we did, the path in those
early years was to learn the ways of the world...and a bit more about
ourselves.
What then followed was a time of yearning. We worked toward developing flourishing
careers. We sought life partners. We strove to create our homes. We made investments in ourselves. We took risks. And some of us, we even sacrificed a bit in
the present for a brighter tomorrow.
Today we're earning. And
that's not a statement about our incomes.
Instead, it's about what we have the good fortune of accumulating right
now. For some, it’s seeing our families
thrive; for others, it’s realizing professional, civic or personal
accomplishments. For all of us, I hope
it's securing our good health for decades of future good living.
So where does that leave us in imagining our future? To be honest, I got stuck trying to continue
my alliterative theme. The next 25 years
will be about what...burning? How depressing. Churning? That's great if all plan on producing butter.
But then it came to me...
For my classmates, for our generation and for me personally, it will be
about returning. We have this
remarkable opportunity in the forthcoming years to give back. Our families count on us, whether we have
growing children or aging relatives, or both.
Our communities need our energy as volunteers, advocates, supporters and
change-agents. Being there for the
people in our lives is the greatest gift we can give them, and the intrinsic
rewards that we reap from such service are equally profound.
I look forward to engaging in the act of returning. It offers us a
sense of completion and it also connects us to aspirations so much larger than
simply our own personal goals. May the
ensuing years be rich and fulfilling ones for my fellow Handsworth alumnae…I
look forward to the next time that we all get together.
Special thanks to my good friend Mark Atkins, whose wisdom and insights certainly helped inspire these thoughts.
