If you have ever edited photographs, you know exactly what I am referring to. Especially if you have scanned/and or edited over 300 photographs since yesterday because you have a slide show to present at your twenty year high school reunion next week. (Ahhh!)

Pause that.

TWENTY YEARS????

OK, HOW is that possible?? Where did twenty years zoom off to?? I swear, I still feel like that young , poofy banged, acid washed wearing, unblemished, skinny, unwrinkled, MTV watching, much smarter than her parents teenage girl. So seriously?????
TWENTY YEARS.

Now I have a daughter in high school. Actually this year she will be a sophomore which is actually the year our high school began. Our school campus consisted of 2nd grade through high school, all spread out over a mile in different buildings for each grade. We all used the same library and cafeteria. Junior High was 7-9th grade, 10-12th was high school. There were approximately 151 in our graduating class. The community where our school was located had two mini mart stores and that was it. There wasn’t even a stop light. It was as country as you could get. The closest town was 5 miles away (seemed farther back then).

Honestly, I can say now as a grown up, how glad I am that I grew up in a country school. Everyone knew each other, from grade school up, you are in the same classes all the way to graduation. That is pretty incredible and rare these days and it is the reason why I am looking forward to this reunion and more importantly the slide show. I got photos of groups together from elementary school that were emailed to me. Tons more from Junior High and up. It’s been a blessing to take this project on. How glad I am I moved those boxes of pictures, umpteen million times all over Dallas/Fort Worth.

Now I can appreciate why old photos should be handled so delicately and not smudged or food-ed upon. They don’t scan so well otherwise. I am sure Jason is very sick of me and these photos and editing to be just perfect (OCD, OCD, OCD). He is probably sick of all my comments and good ole days stories…….

He had cooties and you didn’t want to be touched by him or you’d have cooties too! She and I tried out for cheerleader every year until we finally made it our senior year (there were only two spots for 15 girls trying out). They married right after high school and are STILL together. He, actually DID, make it through school and graduate. Oh, that was taken at one of the parties, people would just show up if they knew my parents were out of town. Look he still plays in a band and here he is playing bass, you know he threatened to eat a chlorine tablet at my 13th birthday party because I broke up with him? There’s my 5th grade teacher Mr. Mann, we would go wild in his classroom. I almost failed that year.

Good times. Good times.

I know high School can be a challenge, but I do think it sets you up for great life experiences. Let’s face it, we live in a world like high school. There are groups , cliques, and judgements based on looks, brains, and what you do, drive, or wear. Don’t kid yourself, it’s true. You have to admit some days are just like high school.

Thankfully we grow up, mature, discover we are, and who we are happy to be. There is nothing wrong with being a certain type of person. Twenty years later we are comfortable in our own skin (if you did mature that is). I can appreciate today our differences more than anything in this world. It’s what makes people unique. it’s what makes our world a cool place to live. We all have something to offer that God put in us, gifts that make us wonderful. Twenty years later we can be who we are and we don’t care what other people think because that is how we are made. It’s official, I don’t care what other people think, I AM old!

I will go to my high school reunion wiser and appreciative of a small country school where everyone knows your name. You can smile at the wonderful memories. The crazy times of being a goofy kid and the only responsiblity you had was passing a class and not dropping your tray at lunch in front of the whole school.

Let the good times roll and keep being true to yourself. Be that young person in those photos. Embrace it. Live your life with no regrets. The next thing you know , it could be twenty years later.

Click Apply.

End edit.