Thirty years ago yesterday, August 19, 1991, we began our senior year of high school at Forest Lake Academy.
Thirty years! That just seems crazy to me. It feels like, well, yesterday.
Let's put this in context. Lately I've noticed the young folk wearing Nirvana t-shirts, especially the one with the blitzed out, "dead" smiley face. I don't know if it's just a fashion statement or if a new generation is discovering the pleasure of "Lithium" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." And it just hit me that Nirvana is to these kids what the Beatles were to us as high school seniors. An "old" band from another era that some of us had rediscovered. I was one of those people who started listening to the Beatles my senior year. They were so old they were cool again. Nirvana is the Beatles. And the Beatles? Well, they'd be like Duke Ellington was to us. Ancient history. (Incidentally, I started listening to big band music during my senior year also--introduced to it through Harry Connick Jr, and then discovering the original old school swing masters like Duke).
Yesterday. I know some of us don't like to dwell on yesterday. There's perhaps too much pain there. "Yesterdays got nothin' for me," like Axl Rose sang. For others, yesterday is perhaps a place we can't escape from--or maybe don't want to. And still others of us simply long for yesterday--a simpler, happier time before the pain, responsibility, disappointments, and losses of grown up life. All of these responses to the past are valid.
But I believe in yesterday. I believe we can, if we choose, learn from our past. More importantly, I believe that there are relationships that we formed all those years ago that still have value today. Maybe we've lost touch a bit, but I think going back--rediscovering some of those people that we've let slip away--has some value. And I don't think it's wise to put it off. We've lost three so far--Francis, Becky, and most recently Chandra, and one thing is certain: The next one of us will always be sooner than we think. You don't want to look back on yesterday and wish you'd reached out when you had the chance.
Between now and May of 2022, I'll be doing a series of blogs about our senior year of high school. I'll revisit some of the highlights with excerpts from the journals I kept and some reflections on those times. These entries will be posted to our class Facebook page and accompanied by the photos from the albums I made of our senior year. I'd like to begin that journey with yesterday's journal entry--thirty years ago:
"Monday, August 19, 1991:
Well, here it is, the first day of the last year of high school, my senior year. The day has left me with mixed feelings. It was good to see everyone again, particularly tonight at the Handshake but the fact that I was tired plus that fact that it always takes me awhile to readjust to a new daily schedule made the school part not so great. I survived it all right though.
Pulled in at the old school about 7 this morning, ready to put the shoulder to the grindstone once again. My first class was English. . .Not much to say there except Mrs. Hopkins is as sweet as ever and I'm out of that class and in to Honors English.
World History was only slightly better. Anita, Lisa, Heather Dunkel, Joey Gravell, and Shane were in that class. Pretty much the same as American History in content.
Bible. . .[I'm not sure how honest I'm going to be in these blog posts. Are the teachers on this page also? We'll just leave the ellipses for now]. . .Greg and Anita are in that class with me.
I had a free period which I used to switch into Honors English. A & P was the best although the hardest class. I dozed through half of that.
This afternoon I worked and tonight I went to the Handshake and it was one of the best I've ever been to. Talked to a lot of people. Got to know Mark Reams and Jenny Marashi a little better and talked to Eugene Armsted. Good to have him back. [Eugene attended our freshman year, left for two years, and returned for our senior year]. Talked to Chandra tonight a little. . .Okay, I've got to go. A waring to U-classmen & Juniors: Seniors 92 RULE!!!"
And so it began.
And so it begins.
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