I had to take a breather from this renovation story because I’d been out of town attending my 20 year high school reunion of all things. It was the only school reunion I’d ever been to, and probably the only one I’ll ever attend. I don’t keep up with many people from those days; however I have enjoyed reconnecting with a few over the last several months, and really this handful of people is the reason I made the trip. We had a decent turn out for a class of about 350, and I probably don’t need to explain to you how fascinating it is to see how people have grown up.

This combined with the preparations being made for my own son to start high school in a couple of weeks, naturally has me thinking a lot about how the high school environment and experience influences an individual as well as a collective group. I was scared when I started high school--the concept itself was daunting to me, plus this was a prestigious school in the middle of a city I hadn’t been a part of very long. On top of it, as a magnet school, my school was also intended to be racially balanced. There was a lot to adapt to!

In four years, though, I made very good yet unlikely friends, was exposed to fantastic opportunities, was given opportunities to shine, and was forced to stretch outside my comfort zones in order to enjoy all of that. A good taste of real life for sure, but in the end, my high school experience probably wasn’t all that different from yours. But for me it was unique, and it ended up giving me some guts I didn’t know I had.

After 20 years, one kind of forgets about all of that formative development. The reunion was a nice reminder of what the world looked like back then and how the scope has gotten so much bigger. It was good to take stock at what I had done with the tools I gathered in high school, and of course learning a bit about what my classmates did with theirs. Pretty impressive. I hope my son and his classmates will be as lucky!