<p>My ages came in stages… When I worked on campus, I felt like a perpetual 25-year-old, then when I moved to work in D.C., I actually felt older than I was. When I moved to work in Colorado and got so involved with the outdoor life style, I went back to 30 again… Up until recently, I felt like early 40’s or so. But over the past 5 years, I feel I aged 30 years more. What’s up with that?</p>
<p>One thing that’s hard at these reunions is the “Redux” of introducing each other according to brief soundbytes of what each person “does” today. I think Michele Obama could be described as “top student, went to an Ivy, married a politician, now raising babies and gardening.” </p>
<p>“There are 2 questions you can ask of another person: ‘What are you?’ or ‘Who are you?’ If you ask ‘WHAT Are You?’ you destroy worlds. If you ask ‘WHO are you?’ you build worlds.” (Shlomo Carlebach)</p>
<p>Which gets back to attitude, I suppose.</p>
<p>Still these longitudinal studies are extremely interesting to ponder, even if they’re just soundbytes. And yes why are all those people in that room so OLD?</p>
<p>Loved post #21: the grunter and Enron.</p>
<p>I got all the reunion updates I needed through FB. I know what people are doing, what they look like, etc.</p>
<p>Our popular kids were also generally the smarter college prep kids and most did fine. The greasers/hoods a mixed bag of not so fine to dead. Best off were the farmers who sold off the farm for millions as the area grew to a suburban one from rural.</p>
<p>Digi:
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<p>The worst thing was the list of members of the two classes that had passed on. Three from the block I grew up on. That made me very sad. We were all children together. The father of one of them, a girl I had a real crush on for years, knew many of the NY Yankees, and he took me to the last game of the 1955 World Series. I was in seventh grade and a Dodger fan, Duke Snider was my hero. Mr. Kapolwitz wouldn’t talk to me all the way home.</p>
<p>I always find these threads fascinating – they always depend on your meaning of success. The girl in my freshman class who OD’d on heroin at the end of the year party is now a nun who works in an inner city mission, owns only the clothes on her back, and has twice been sanctioned by the Vatican for suggesting that the Church’s stance on abortion and birth control may not always be rooted in mercy. I find her to be highly successful. The Queen Bee in my class now runs an internet business, is worth millions, appeared on Oprah, etc,etc. But she lied and cheated to get where she is and in general is a nasty human being. I consider her to be an abject failure.</p>
<p>Only about 30% of my HS class went to college, and most of them to the local college. About ten of us (out of 300) got out of town. Among the nerdy crowd who got out of town – several engineers/scientists among the guys, among the young women, they are at-home moms who met their spouses during college. Nerdy girl with career (me) seems to be an anomaly.</p>
<p>There are a few folks who surprised me – B+ students, good social skills, but not among the most popular – a couple have PhDs, one has a long career in banking. A number of the girls I know from HS in this group went into nursing.</p>
<p>Lots of folks went into the military. A lot went back to college twenty years after HS graduation. Three young women I knew in HS (none in my graduating year) are currently in the process of becoming nuns.</p>
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<p>And obese.</p>
<p>And bald.</p>
<p>And yet in many ways they haven’t changed one bit.</p>