Popcorn

I went to my High School Reunion last weekend.
I had a graduating class of something like 850 people. Other than my husband and my oldest and best friend, Kelly, I've barely kept in touch with anyone in all these years.

Ten years ago, my husband and I went to the reunion and Kelly didn't make it in town for that one. Afterwards, she had regrets that she missed it, so we vowed that when the next one rolled around, we'd all go together. So here it was, the next one.

Kelly came into town for a long weekend and THAT was awesome! I love her and her family because in a way, they are my family and I'm a part of their's. And now she's got this 4 year old daughter, Sarah, that is really just the coolest little chick around. Kind of like a little Kelly. Nothing and no one, in my opinion, could be better than that!

Kelly, Fermin, and I all had very different experiences with high school with different memories of it. But we were all sort of anxious to go but also curious. (And I'm pretty sure I was the most anxious of the 3 of us.) On top of that, we made a pact that we'd go, so when Saturday night rolled around, we were off.

It was pretty much chaos from beginning to end. So many faces. Faces I sort of remembered, faces I'm pretty sure I'd never seen before, and faces that looked a lot older than they did last time I saw them. (And yes, I realized, my face is one of those older faces.)

In the midst of it, it felt fun. Or at least somewhat exciting. We got there quite late, but we stayed until the bitter end. It was obviously something I'd never experienced before.

I love analogies and I finally came up with one for my High School Reunion. Seeing all of those people was like eating popcorn. There's tons of it, you can keep eating and eating, but in the end, did it really fill you? I realized I talked to many people that night without having one real connection with anyone. When Kelly and Fermin and I got in the car, other than saying, "Did you see _______?" there was really not much beyond that to note.

Days later, I told Kelly about my "Popcorn as Reunion People" analogy and she added, "Yeah, and if you eat too much, you start to sort of feel sick." She had an early flight to catch the next morning, and perhaps the night ran a little late. It seems if I had stayed only an hour and looked around the room from person to person, it would have been nearly as much information as I got in the several hours that I had of cocktail party conversation. I learned nothing, and I revealed nothing.

Will I go to the next one? Probably. Who doesn't like to indulge in a buttery tub of popcorn every now and then no matter how unfulfulling it actually is?