Twenty Year Reunion!

That's right - the big 2-0! Cottonwood High School, Class of 1988! We had our reunion this weekend and to my surprise, it was actually pretty enjoyable. I never went to any of the other reunions. The consensus I got from others was that at 5 years everyone is working on school and starting a family, 10 years everyone talks about their egos, I mean accomplishments, but by 20 it is a more take or leave attitude. People are basically stable, smaller egos, and so what if I gained a few extra pounds! High school was not necessarily a pleasant phase of my life. I had a few friends that let me tag along with them but mainly I was just a shy, awkward kid. I did have several very popular friends due to us living within the same ward and through them I had a certain level of acceptance into the cool crowds by association. Hopefully I am not painting a picture of being the shunned outcast because that is not true at all. I just didn't ever feel like I fit in anywhere. Over the last 20 years, Matt J. has really been the only friend that I kept in contact with. I have known Matt since the 7th or 8th grade, stayed friends throughout the years and now live in the same ward. I have bumped into a few people here and there over the years but didn't keep in touch. So anyway, back to the reunion. Friday night they had a social for the alumni. The gals win the prize for keeping themselves in shape much, much better than the guys. A lot of us (myself being near the top of the list) have been working hard on our image but in a generally negative way. Some people have changed very little over these 20 years, both physically and maturity. It was great to see old classmates and get caught-up (very rudimentary) on each others lives. Jobs, marriages, kids, where you have lived, etc). Saturday morning Matt J. and I met up with Chris B. and Mike C. for breakfast. It has been fun to hear about one another's adventures. During the day on Saturday, Jill and Maya played in the pool while I read through the memory book of a lot of the alumni. Saturday night we brought along our spouses to a nice buffet dinner at the Cottonwood Country club. We all got together for a big group photo, chatted with many more people and had a pretty decent time. I was able to introduce Jill to a few of those popular friends from my old ward and they actually were dishing out some pretty big, unsolicited, compliments. Thanks Lara, Deborah and Andrea! They gave out prizes for various categories like: Who lives closest to the school Who live the furthest away from the school Who has kids attending Cottowood Who has been married the longest amount of time Who has been married the shortest (we won that one) Who has the most kids (Deborah with 7 did not win! Three people had EIGHT kids!!!) Who has the newest kid (Matt and Tina won that) Who is a grandparent Who is still in school (Chris won) And there was a prize for those couples that were in our graduating class (I think there were 5) Anyway, it was an enjoyable evening and would highly recommend going to your 20th.