10 years and still in the cafeteria?

Time is relative.




I know the old regulars at my Starbucks would beg to differ with me but having my ten year high school reunion made me feel so incredibly old! I mean, another year and a half and I'll be thirty and I'm still waiting to feel like a grown up! But I suppose that's true for the majority of us. And I think our morbid curiosity of what may or may not happen is the reason most of us showed up at that bar on Friday night.



There were people I didn't expect to see, people I'd hoped would be there that weren't, people that I'd had classes with since kindergarten. I got to see my high school sweetheart, the cute jocks who are now handsome men, the guy who gave me my first awful kiss, the shy girls, the nervous girls, the cool girls, the facebook stalker, the girl who won't be my facebook friend (though I swear we were friends in high school!)



One guy said, "There are people here I wanted to see and then there are people here I wish hadn't shown up!" I had to laugh! Raw honesty is so rare these days.



There were people I had genuinely nice conversations with that I may have never talked to in high school. There were people who were so overwhelmed at seeing so many strangers who used to haunt their lives all in the same room once again. Some people came and left and I found out after the fact they'd been there at all. There were those I never talk to on facebook who'd been following what I'd been up to and as ridiculous as this sounds, I felt flattered. We don't even talk on Fb yet they take the time to cyber stalk me and have opinions concerning my life? Aw, that is so sweet! Who knew I was significant enough to be a topic of conversation. We're influencing one another when we don't even see them or talk to them or remember them, for that matter. It's a pretty sobering thought, realizing your mere existence has such a profound effect. (And here you thought you were just another snowflake. Shame on you).



But more than anything, we all just seemed surprised to keep seeing each other. Every time I turned around I saw another familiar face of a stranger and it was more fun than I thought it'd be.



And somehow the realization that while ten years had passed (what a long time that seemed to be!) not so very much had changed. And somehow I took comfort in that. A friend of mine the other day was waiting to hear from someone and whined it had been three weeks!!! Isn't it funny how quickly time can pass when we're not paying attention? It's nearly August already and I can't hardly believe it.



Time is relative. Slow when we will it to hasten, quick when we're looking away. And still, days pass by, and little seems to change. The whispers from the cafeteria tables still speak your name and you can smile as you walk past, knowing that while so much remains in tact, you in fact, are so much more than you once were. And praise be for that!