Friday night mixer and the Specialness of us all

I don't have pictures to share with you from the reunion. But, boy do I have the snapshots of the weekend in my head! You will have to do your best to imagine the images of the story as you read along. That is probably my only true regret of the weekend.... that I didn't have a camera with me. But, it is what it is and what it was... which was Awesome!

Friday's festivities started out with my girl Anne and I going out to dinner and catching up. It was so great to see her again and hang out and catch up before we went to the Reunion Mixer. Thanks Anne!!! : )

I'm not sure that I can truly convey to you the atmosphere of Friday night and the Class of 81 Reunion Mixer. In order for you to "feel" it, unless you were there and can remember it, is to think of the time in your life that was full of constant surprises, all good... great people, good friends, more laughter than could be contained (though why anyone would want to contain laughter is beyond me!), and constant conversation. From the minute that Anne and I walked in the door, it was "OH look!!! That's so & so!" or "Who is that? Really???!!!! Wow I've gotta say hi!" It rocked!

Once we were done with the constant greetings, we settled in to random greetings as people came (not many people left), and the true mingling began. I'm not sure that many people can mingle as well as a crowd of almost 50 year olds (we are really almost that old!??) who haven't seen each other as a group in years. When you take people who were living day to school day with each other, in the imposing halls of KHS, then take them apart and send them out into the world, you just don't know what the result will be. This weekend, after 30 years, you get the results.

The result of the KHS Class of '81 is one for the books. It doesn't matter if your bank balance contains one 0 or 6 of them at the end of the first number. It doesn't matter if you've been locked out of your job at the local factory for the past 10 months or if you own your own business, or exist somewhere in between. It doesn't matter if you live in the old home town, or traveled from Alaska, this is where we are all from. And when we all get back together, it is incredible. Dare I say almost magical?

Not one single person had an unkind word to say to another. There were hugs and smiles and laughter and happiness. Friday night was the most awesome event I've been to since Eric's wedding. And it's different. We all came to this event purely because we wanted to. Because we have good memories from high school. Because we like the company of our old classmates, now friends. We had 60+ people from KHS Class of '81 show up to the Mixer, because we wanted to. Because it's important to us to reconnect, to remember, to be a part of something special.

I have some special memories from Friday night... actions that I saw that make me be proud to know the people who were there. I saw every single person from our class welcomed and talked to and included. That is something special, in more than one way. It is special that the people who go to our reunions don't treat those people with less like they have less. They are happy to see them and welcome them just as any other member of our class. Everyone was included. It is also special in that it is true... so many people wouldn't come to these reunions if we weren't all welcomed. Can you imagine going to a high school reunion and being treated, well, like you might have been in high school? It could be horrible. But, the KHS Class of '81 grew up well. We remember how to laugh, we've learned to treat people fairly and equally, and the atmosphere at our gatherings should be bottled. Then we could all open that bottle and take a deep breath of "specialness" when we needed it. Thank heavens for memories and pictures and the Internet!

None of our weekend could have happened without the hard work of a lot of people. But that will be a later post. As will Saturday night. Friday night I enjoyed and mingled and had a weee bit too much fun! (ooops) Saturday night I watched and saw and was awed by my class mates.

Thank you class of '81. For being the incredible, wonderful, awesome people that you are individually. As a group, well, thank you for allowing us all to be a part of something this special. I'm pretty sure that as a group, we're the best there is!