This week someone from my graduating class created a Facebook group for our high school class in preparation for our 20 year reunion next year. First of all it’s crazy and horrifying to me that it has already been that long. I have no idea where the last 20 years went. It does not possibly seem like it’s been that long.

It’s been an interesting few days seeing people posting like crazy in that group. I know it will die down once the novelty has worn off in a few days. It actually reminds me of when I first joined Facebook back in the day and everyone was reconnecting with their high school pals and acquaintances all excitedly. I haven’t really reconnected with anyone new because I was already Facebook friends with the high school people I’m likely to be friends with.

Also, here’s the thing my graduating class had 1300 people in it. I obviously only knew a tiny fraction of these people. Most of the people posting in this group I don’t recognize in the least. The pictures and remembrances they’re posting are making me realize that there is an entire world of my high school I really knew nothing about. Someone posted something about it seeming like the popular kids were already dominating the group just like high school, and it kind of threw me because I was like I have no idea who the popular kids even were. I certainly wasn’t in any group that could have been considered popular, but there were so many people at my school that I have no idea who the people who I suppose existed in your typical popular cliques like football players and cheerleaders even were.

I lived in Texas, so let’s be real I spent my Friday nights going to football games. I however was hanging out with the band. I always like to say that I am a band geek who was never in the band. In both high school and college I had a number of friends in the band, and even now as an adult many of my friends were band geeks at their respective schools. I couldn’t name you one person on the football team or our homecoming court and wouldn’t have been able to back then either. This is in contrast to the school I went to my freshman year in Massachusetts that was much smaller. There I definitely felt a sense of who the popular kids were and new who they were. I think the sheer number of people in my class in Plano meant that if you could find your niche then you didn’t really know what was going on with everyone else. It was just enough to keep up with the people in your own little area of the school. Obviously it seems not everyone had that same experience, but at least for me looking back it seems to be what was true.

I’ve also been really surprised about the number of people who have either never left the area or have gone back. Someone started a thread asking where people were living now and the vast majority of people who have responded are living in Plano or in the surrounding area. I can’t even imagine still living there. I guess a lot of them probably grew up there and have family still there so it makes sense for them. I on the other hand didn’t move there until my sophomore year of high school and my parents moved away from there the year after I graduated, so I’ve never even had a reason to go back to visit much less think about living. Interestingly not a single one of the high school friends I know of stayed there or anywhere near there.

Anyway, this has been a really long way to say that looking through the posts in this group has made me reflect on my high school years and where I’ve ended up compared to other people in my class. Once i found my group of friends I was pretty happy in high school and am happy with where I’ve ended up. I’m glad it’s not in Plano. The one thing this group has not done is make me nostalgic. As much as I like to act horrified about how long it’s been since I was in high school, I honestly would not want to go back. I’m happy with where my life is now, and have to say that my 30s have been a pretty great decade so far.