Saturday, July 7, 2007

High school and facebook

I was bored the other day, as usual, and decided to check facebook for updates, again as usual. I saw a friend's friend and remembered she was someone I used to like in high school. This got me to look at all the SME 2001 graduates.

It was interesting to see the variety of life paths even just six years after graduation. Some people were wearing suits, traveling for their job. Some were still partying nightly. A surprising number were still best friends with their high school friends. I did't recognize quite a few names. A few were married; a few had kids. The married part may have influenced the name recognition, though.

I recently watched Grosse Pointe Blank again, and my uncle was just in town for his 30-year high school reunion. This may have something to do with me thinking of seeing all these people again in a few years at my 10-year reunion. It will be interesting, for sure. I also knew a lot of people older and younger than I. I guess I won't really be able to see them at any reunion.

Strangely enough, I've always lacked school spirit or any real connection with classmates of any particular year. I don't know exactly what makes me feel some sudden connection on facebook with my fellow 2001 graduates. A friend recently talked to me about how older people have a more developed empathy center of the brain. I commented on how this made sense given my recent observations: I got a bit emotional during Freedom Writers, among other movies, whereas I used to feel next to nothing when family members and/or neighbors died. I guess the same thing applies to school pride.

Well, here's to 2001 Shawnee Mission East.

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