3.27.2006

you look a bit like coffee, and you taste a little like me

what is it about reunions? people either seem to love them or hate them, and the people who hate them are generally the ones who don't want to see the people who love them. does the desire to participate change with age and distance?

i have no desire to go to my high school reunion. i graduated with about 400 other people, and i still see the ones that i care to keep in touch with. i've changed alot since high school, but i know seeing the majority of the people i graduated with will bring out the old me. i'll instantly go back to feeling like i'm 14 and need the validation from the world i lived just outside of. my ultra-competitive instincts will kick in, and i won't even want to be around myself. i was always different, and i simultaneously hated and embraced that fact. i'm not sure what the difference was exactly, but i knew it was rooted in the fact that i'd be leaving arkansas as soon as i could and that i'd never look back.

of course, i didn't leave arkansas as soon as i could - i instead spent 5 years in college at fayetteville. i've written about my love/hate relationship with that decision, but at the end of the day, i wouldn't trade it for anything. i made some of the best friends of my life, i grew more than i ever thought possible, and in the walls of vol walker hall, late at night, while working on architecture projects with people who cared as much about it as i did, i discovered that i really wasn't that different - there are people everywhere who embrace their passions and get swept up in them. and i didn't need to leave arkansas to figure that out.

and so i'm going to a reunion of sorts this weekend. i'll be back in fayetteville with a good chunk of my architecture classmates, and there is no dread what-so-ever involved. i can't wait to see these people - the same people who have seen some of my worst moments and some of my best, who backpacked italy and the netherlands with me and made late night trips to the ER with me for exacto accidents (or at least were waiting to see the stiches when i got back). and while we may be jaded by the realities of internship and may not be as idealistic as we were when we all came together in second year, i still hold a sense of optimism for what these guys will accomplish during their careers. but, more than anything, i'm just looking forward to having a few beers and laughs with them.

clap your hands say yeah . skin of my yellow country teeth

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