I recall when my father attended his fiftieth high school reunion. I thought he was ancient. I was young and thought the fiftieth of anything was ridiculous.

And now it was my turn.

I spent Saturday night struggling to put names to faces. Even though it was legal to walk around reading name tags, sometimes I could recognize the face, and sometimes it was the name. Oddly, it was sometimes the voices that did it for me.

Surprisingly, the reunion filled me with a deep sense of gratitude. We shared tales of loss, hardship, multiple marriages, long roads to recovery, successes, joys, grandchildren, and so much more. A lot of life happens in fifty years, even if it didn’t happen to me. The past fifty years have been mostly good. Not perfect, not without trials and tribulations, but also filled with love, safety, and sans catastrophe.

But What really got me was the very long list of classmates we lost over time. It really made me sad. Some of those were people I had hoped to see that night. One had passed just the day before.

Here are my reunion take aways:

Life is short.

No two lives are alike.

Fifty years goes by fast and slow and in all directions. 

I left realizing I will not likely see these people again. If we were to have another reunion, many more will be on the list of the deceased. Many will have suffered more tragedies. Maybe even me.

Humbling. Grateful. Blessed.

These are what I take away from the experience. Go to your high school reunion if you can. There is much there for you to reflect upon and gain.

Mary