Still Friends

After forty years, our small class from our small town where I still live today continues to love to get together for a weekend, laugh a lot, cry over those we’ve lost, play and bond once again over good food. In fact, many of us who live in the area, when we hear one of our class family is coming in from out of town, will have a small reunion any time of the year. Many of us have lunch several times a year.

Our spouses are always amazed, when we get together, by the love we still have for one another, and the laughter we share–our closeness, and how open we are with each other. Other classes have been as small as ours–in a tiny town of 1006, you could understand why our class only had about 44 graduates. But why us? Why do we still enjoy each other so much?

We were a wild class. Not only did I get suspended during my senior year for skipping school, but I also ran away from home eight weeks before graduation–and still actually graduated. Some of our poor teachers quit because we were so hard to control.  We didn’t do it intentionally, but there were a lot of brilliant kids in our class, and we got bored easily. Those teachers who could hold our attention were the good ones who challenged us. One of my dear friends was told by many teachers he would never amount to anything because he didn’t pay attention in class and he wore his hair long. He now owns his own extremely successful company, and uses his wealth to share with those who don’t have what they need to survive. He also puts us up for free in his and his wife’s vacation compound during our reunions.

We graduated to become librarians, farmers, medical professionals, landlords, farmers, paralegals, office managers, scientists, farmers, cattle barons (different from farmers) and business owners of many stripes. Oh, and we have a novelist among us. Yeah, we also have some who lost their way, but we have others who reached out and tried to show them the way back–right here  within our class. Though we’re a mixed bag of denominations, and though some attend church weekly and some don’t, we actually pray for each other by keeping in touch online. What a gift God gave this only child when I entered that class in sixth grade after a move from California.

We’re still trying to figure out why we have such a powerful connection. Maybe others have that, as well. We haven’t found another class with as much love for one another as we have, but you’ve gotta love the love, you know?