Pinc's Picks

Into the Time Machine to 1994

Over the weekend I attended a wedding of a high school friend in the town where I grew up. Tons of my friends from high school were there and it was both completely surreal and so familiar to hang out with them again. Some I have seen recently, some I had not seen for five or even ten years. After the initial shock wore off, it was as if no time had passed. Sure, we are "grown-up" with jobs and mortgages and responsibilities, but we were also exactly who we were all of our lives. We told the same kinds of jokes, talked about the same kinds of things, and acted like general lunatics. And it was fun. I laughed more in the past three days than I have in the past three months. I'm not sure if that says more about how funny my friends from home are, or how dull my life has been lately.

Ernesto followed me North, blowing through town and wreaking all kinds of havoc. Trees and power lines were downed. Roads were blocked. Electricity was extinguished. In between the ceremony and the reception we weathered the storm at a friend's parents' house, played Trivial Pursuit and ordered pizza. The night before we all hung out at my parents' house and ate cookies and lounged on the couch. A wedding guest who did not go to high school with us but was staying with me asked if the previous night's scene had been a replica of any random night in 1994. She hit the nail on the head -- nothing had changed.

The weekend was alternately comforting and unsettling. The comfort came from knowing that people don't really change, even if you don't see them for years. The unsettling part came from remembering that I live somewhere where I'm surrounded by people who haven't known me for more than a few years. I have no context here. No frame of reference. As irritating as it was to have the names of all my high school ex-boyfriends recited to me by my friends, at least they knew who all those guys were.

I suppose it's refreshing to be able to move to a new city where no one knows you and reinvent yourself if you choose. I've never really chosen to be anything other than who I've always been, with a couple improvements here and there. There's no way to say this that won't sound trite, but I'm lucky to still know my childhood friends. In some respects they may be the ones who still know me the best.

posted by Danya @ 9/05/2006 11:14:00 PM