It has been a long time since high school and that world seems like a far off place. Of course my "real" reality is not the typical path chosen by most. But it is the one that best fit me and so I might look at life in a different way. The reality of my world is that I make a fulltime living being Santa Claus. Since the inception of a “live” Santa visiting children some 170 years ago there have been only five Santas that have done Santa as a living for a span of a decade or more. I happen to be one of those men. I’ve been a fulltime Santa for over 25 years and only one man in history has more fulltime years at this than I do…and he helped me get a “D” on my high school junior year term paper about what I wanted to do for a living. In a way that is some sort of poetic justice for me today as I think that paper and a certain English teacher that graded it motivated me more than anything else. I knew she was wrong.
This upcoming weekend, the Fourth of July celebration in Watseka, Illinois, my graduating class of 1981 will celebrate our 30th anniversary…so I have made arrangements to take a few days off and go back to high school. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I know that since I left high school I have changed a lot. And of course all of the 100 or so of my classmates have too. That’s just part of going from a young person to a middle aged person.
Reminiscing about days gone by is fun. Heck that was the point of this blog in the first place. I have probably forgotten more about high school than I can remember. And that is most likely true of everyone. But that is not what is important.
In my humble opinion, it is not that thirty years have passed or so and so was a jock, musician, drama queen , a rah-rah or stoner…and it is not about high school any more. What it is about is that these people were a part of my formative years. They were and some still are a part of my life. It does not really matter where anyone ended up or who does what and where…as long as they are happy. That’s what is important.
If anything comes out of this reunion for my classmates and me, it’s the feeling that we all still have a common bond to each other. I hope this is a reunion not a “let’s party dude” or “class of 81 rules” thing. High school was a long time ago and all of us are now in our late 40s so no one should expect a 17 or 18 year old mentality. Hopefully people can just be themselves.
Going to a class reunion is a rite of passage in some ways. I never attended the 10th or 20th class reunions, so I think it is about time to go to one. I guess I’m just getting older and realizing that life is really very short. Over the past few years my class has lost a few more classmates. Little did I know way back in 1981 that would be the last time I would see some of these people. That is why this reunion is important also. You never know the cards the game of life will deal you.
I do look forward to seeing members of my class. As I said before, they all were a part of my formative years as a person and in a way as Santa Claus. That is my connection to the Watseka Community and the High School Class of 1981. And I thank them for it.
