Reunion Part I

To tell this story I need to give a short background on my educational past. I was born and raised in Montville, New Jersey and attended school there from Day 1 through the freshmen year of high school (when and where I met my husband who was a senior at the time). After my freshmen year my parents picked up stakes and moved to Mendham, New Jersey, a very nice place but NOT my home town. After the first year in Mendham I decided  I wanted out of high school early, enrolled in junior year of English in summer school and returned to my third year of high school as a senior. I graduated at 16 as a junior/senior. I felt like I never had a Class or a School to call my own.
Fast forward twenty years later and my 20th High School Reunion at Mendham came...and went. I gave birth to my third child days before the reunion occurred. I was not passionate about attending anyway as, although I had made friends at Mendham, most of them were from the class I should have graduated. And now, a year later, I found out that my original class from Montville, the people who I grew up with in my formative years, are holding their 20th High School Reunion. Having not graduated with the class I looked on as an interested observer until a few days ago when a woman from that class contacted me and asked me if I'd like to attend. I made some inquiries and now I am attending!
For twenty years I thought I would never be a part of the hoopla surrounding reunions. But now, with this windfall bestowed upon me, I will be reconnecting with the people who had the most effects on me in my early years. My best friend from Nursery School through fourth grade will be attending. Kate (then Katy) was the prettiest little girl with big blue eyes, long blond pigtails she wore with yarn ribbon to match each and every outfit, and the smartest girl in the town (if not the universe!). My best friend from sixth grade, Becky, will be there, a dark goddess from a foreign land (she's Indian) who had impossibly long, silky straight dark hair, a keen sense of humor and big brains to boot! I will see friends who all took a part in framing my ideas on how to be friends, what is beautiful, funny, and acceptable. We have plans, several of us, to meet before the reunion to introduce each other to our children! And these women from my past all froze as 14/15 year old girls in my mind's eye! Now we get to reveal ourselves to one another and catch up on a mini-lifetime of events. All this would not have been possible without Facebook. So, as I prepare to meet the shadows of my past face to face, I raise a glass of thanks and cheers to Facebook and my many friends I will soon be reunited.