Recently I had the chance to reconnect with many of my high school friends. We’ve stayed in touch in the 15 years since graduation, through university and beyond, but our once close-knit group has drifted apart. Most of us see each other a few times a year, when the out-of-towners come back.
We don’t tend to reminisce, but recent events have made me look back at the years and memories we’ve shared.
Back in high school we were so awkward and earnest, a group of overachievers focused on our university dreams. We got good marks, studied hard, rounded ourselves out with extracurriculars such as music.
We’ve come so far since then, grown into poised women – I was going to say young women, but at 30+ maybe we’ve earned the right to drop the “young”. Some of us are married, some have a child or two or three. Some have taken the straight track to a professional career, while others have taken detours from the routes we planned back then.
One of my friends earned a degree in biochemistry, then became a dancer, and is now going back to school in yet another field that she hopes will integrate all her passions. Others have stepped aside from their original career trajectories to focus on their children. I wasn’t the only writer among my friends, but I’m the only one writing now. Another friend took university courses in everything from business to computer science before eventually going into medical research.
Did I ever tell you that I was a physics major when I started university? I signed up thinking of astrophysics and astronomy. I wanted to work at NASA and become an astronaut. (Star Trek was the major influence in this decision, but that’s another story.) But somehow, when I was choosing my major in Grade 12, I forgot that writing was where I belonged.
I could maybe have predicted I’d find my way back to it. But I don’t think I could have predicted where I am now. I never thought I’d move to Ontario and work in a cubicle and live in the middle of a really big city.
Yet I love this place, this neighbourhood, this city. My high-school self used to dream of living and writing in an old house with an attic, and here I am, worlds away and yet in some ways so close to the girl I was.
What did you dream of being or doing when you were in high school? How about your friends?
When I was in high school I had NO idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my friends were more concerned with who would buy the beer. It wasn’t till college that I met a girl who was in the nursing program and I thought, “Wow, real people do that?”
It took a while to find my stride…
That seems to be a theme — it’s not necessarily a straight path from high school onward. Thanks for the comment!
Siri