I have been charged with creating a slideshow to be shown at my ten year high school reunion, which is coming up this weekend. Over the past few days, I have been spending a considerable amount of time scanning pictures from the pre-digital photography days of 1993-1998.

I have an idea for the slideshow. It includes me using the pages of our yearbook. So, this evening, I was looking through the yearbook from our senior year and I started reading what everyone had written. This was the first time I had done this since high school. I'm sure that I read what people had written shortly after they had written it, but a lot of the things I read tonight I had no recollection of ever reading them before.

A lot of the notes said the same sort of stuff: "you're a great friend", "you are so funny", "I enjoyed getting to know you", "I hope you do well at State". Others were more heart felt. I was somewhat surprised by the maturity displayed in some of the notes.

I think that in the final days of high school, it settles in that you have spent the majority of the past four to seven years with these people, and there is a good chance that you are not going to see most of them again. That came across in some of the notes. In years past, these same people may have written, "Have a great summer! See you next year." However, in your senior yearbook, things have a little more finality.

It was a great half an hour that I spent reminiscing. It made me even more excited about the upcoming reunion.

I'll finish this off with what I thought was the best line from all of the notes that I read. It came from a girl that ran in a different circle of friends than me. We had a class together our final year and sort got to know one another. Here's what she had to say...

Well, well, well, it's been an interesting ride now hasn't it. I think you are a great guy even though you annoy the hell out of me sometimes. I'm glad that I got to know you a little better this year. I hope you have a wonderful life.

Thanks Megan Cottrell, you made my night with your "you annoy the hell out of me sometimes" comment. It's too bad she's not coming to the reunion or I'd let her know that she made it into a blog post. I'm sure that would surprise her. It may even "annoy the hell out of her".

Do you have any high school yearbook strories to share?

Labels: books, high school, the 90s