I leave to go home for my high school reunion a week from tomorrow. Although I am so excited to see my mom and Dwane and Jared and Steph and their cute baby girl, I am starting to have crazy dreams about high school. Am I starting to get anxious? I mean, who really wants to relive high school anyway? All I remember is a series of embarrassing incidents and a few good friends. College was much more my speed. What will it be like to see everyone again?
A couple of weeks ago while I was teaching in gospel doctrine I backed up to show the class something I had written on the chalkboard, tripped over the wheel of the chalkboard, caught my heel of my shoe in my long skirt and landed on my back side. Had this happened in high school I would have been completely mortified. As it was I cracked some joke about being grace itself and continued on with my lesson. I am such a different person than I was in high school and yet all of my friends whom I haven't seen in years are all stuck in my mind in that awkward, self-conscious phase. It will be interesting to see how everyone has turned out - and if we all revert to who we were the last time we were all together.
5 comments:
I have often felt that not only would it be fun to relive my high school days...but it would be interesting to relive my entire life...
A few people I've mentioned this to have said either a) What makes you think you would live your life any better or not make the same mistakes? or b) Why do you regret the life you've lived?
I don't regret the life I've lived. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I regret elements of my life though, and it would be interesting to see how my life would be without those regrets.
So the only way this would work is if I could become a baby again but with my mind as it is now. A friend suggested, "Wouldn't you be bored associating with people who don't have an adult brain though?" Yes, I told him, but then you can become a famous genius baby and end up very wealthy (up until you reach your regular age again...)
But even without that. Let's just say it would be interesting to live your life again and make different mistakes...just to see where you end up.
So I guess what we need here is a way to view alternate realities. A Holodeck or something. How about it, Science?
I don't know that I would want to relive my entire life. I am impatient and that would just take too long. But I have always wondered if I could go back and change one decision in my life what difference would it make.
Now if I changed what I had for breakfast three years ago it probably wouldn't have affected the course of my life. However, if I had decided to go to college in Seattle instead of Philadelphia, who knows where I would be now.
Of course, you could drive yourself crazy with what ifs. I find it is better to be happy where I am and plan that when I create my own world maybe I will let everyone have a do-over or two... or ten! You know, just so they can waste one or two on delivering really good comeback lines for conversations they already had.
I just got back from a friend's wedding, where there were several of my friends from high school. It was actually really neat to see everyone and find out what they've been up to. I loved seeing how they've changed and how they haven't. And we all got to heckle the bride, which is, of course, awesome. :D
I definitely wouldn't want to live my life over again, but I do wish I could have a video (e.g. the movie Sliding Doors) where I could see what happens if something changed.
On the other hand, if I believe the premise of the Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we would all just end up doing the same things and making the same mistakes.
I couldn't make it to my high school reunion, but my sister went to hers, and she said it was uber-strange. Everybody seemed to revert back to their old cliques. Girls who had been "popular" were told by lots of people: "OMG, we HATED you in high school!" People who had been "unpopular" stood around awkwardly.
Anyway, her advice was that if I ever did end up at a class reunion, to reconnect with friends ahead of time so I didn't feel like I was walking in alone. Sounds like good advice to me!
It's too bad J isn't going with you. I think it must be helpful to keep you grounded in the present. :-)
Thanks for the advice Becca. I did already contact one of my good friends to make sure she was going to be there. Also I may drag mom and/or Jared to some of the events - just so stave off going stag. It just seems a little too weird.
I will definitely post when I get back and let you know how it went.
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