10 Years

Recently Guitar Guy and I were discussing time and how fast it seemed to be flying by. In the middle of that discussion he took it upon himself to remind me that I graduated high school in 2002…and that it was 2012. I brushed it off and told him I didn’t want to talk about it. He laughed at me (he does that quite often) and said something to the effect of “whatever, I’m not letting you get out of this” and we moved along in the conversation.

About a month ago I received an email from the Eudora High School Class of 2002 President reminding me and a few others that as class officers we had basically volunteered ourselves to the planning and hosting of the 10 year class reunion. I had been the vice president (Guitar Guy enjoyed ‘being right’ about me not getting out of it).

So there have been a few emails back and forth about the dates, the plans, the activities we’re all working to get booked etc. It’s been interesting dealing with the adult versions of people I interacted with as a youth/teenager. And in doing so, I find myself laying in bed on a Sunday morning thinking back on my life in Eudora, KS.

We moved to Eudora when I was 11. My parents were ready to be closer to family and to be able to help out on the farm, so they uprooted my 4 siblings from our life in Perry, KS and moved us into the house they designed and helped build down the dirt road from my Grandma and Grandpa Abel. It was a huge adjustment to go from a class of 24 kids to a class of 80. To go from riding my bike all over town to living 6 miles outside of town. To go from doing whatever I wanted to in the summers to being responsible for my siblings so my parents could help on the farm. Oh, and did I mention the morning chores on the farm? Oh yes, I fed cows every morning before school.

Eudora, KS and I have a love hate relationship I think. It was a typical small town with it’s small town politics and gossip. I was definitely of the middle class popularity group. I participated in all of the sports and activities that were available to me. I starred in musicals. I sang in choir. Was a captain of the volleyball team and basketball team. I broke records on the track team. My dad was a coach and a teacher at the high school.

I am definitely among the group of people who would not go back and do it all over again. I remember feeling small a lot. I remember feeling unsure and incredibly insecure. I remember being so ready to go off to college I considered graduating early.

I worry at times what it will be like to be back among all of those people. Will I fall back into the same old Brandi I was back then? Will I be able to hold onto the person I have become? Will I be able to look beyond who the other people ‘were’ and see them for who they are now?

I certainly hope so. God knows I am so much more than I was back then. Hell, I’m so much more today than I was yesterday. Life’s lessons have molded me so that I can become more like the person I am supposed to be so it is only fair for me to believe the same of the people I graduated high school with. Right?

Well I suppose I’m going to find out on July 27th, 2012. With Guitar Guy tagging along for his own amusement 🙂


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