My 35th high school reunion is next week, Timberline High School, class of 1983. Unfortunately I won’t be going. The reunion is really just a dinner in my home town. After 35 years, and on an anniversary ending in “5” rather than “0” there’s not a lot of emphasis on planning a big event. We did invite former classmates who graduated in the years 81-85 to join us.
Like most people, I’ve lost contact with many people from high school. When I graduated the internet was still a research project. The start of the real interent, typically considered to have occured around 1995 was still more than a decade away. Social media programs wouldn’t come until decades after that. The only way we had to keep in touch with each other were a few early bullitan board systems (BBS) and honestly, keeping track of each other’s parents. Cell phones were still years away. You remembered your friend’s phone number and called their home.
Now, of course, we have a facebook group setup. We have cell phone numbers and text our close friends.
One of my best friends was a year behind me in school. Kevin and I were pretty much inseperable. I texted him a couple days ago,
This is Rodney, are you going to the reunion next week?
First I’ve heard of it.
I got up at 5:00am this morning. Well, I was supposed to be up at 5:00am. I actually rolled out of bed around 5:15. That meant I was 15 minutes late for my first meeting. It wasn’t that they needed me in the meeting. It’s just that they weren’t going to start without me. I wasn’t important to the meeting, but, I was critical to the start.
The meeting is to validate some changes the client IT groups made. I’ll be up at 5:00am again this morning. It’s part of the nature of being the program manager. I don’t do anything, but I have to be there while other people are doing stuff.
My reunion will go on with out me. Friends will post pictures on facebook and we’ll promise to do it again in 5 years when we are old and we hit our 40th.
The meeting tomorrow morning won’t happen with out me. Even though I’ll contribute nothing except my presence.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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