Reunion

Last night I had the opportunity to attend my 10-year High School Reunion. Well technically it's been almost 11 years but let's not get so technical. The reunion was actually held at my old school, in the ballroom that does not seem to have changed one bit in the last ten years. Why our school has a ballroom is a valid question, one I do not know the answer to.
Of the 80-something girls in our grade, I would say about 35 or so showed up. I was actually looking forward to going, even though high school was not my favorite time. I thought it would be fun to see everyone and catch up. The truth is, I had seen many of my classmates at a wedding about a year and a half ago and also reconnected with many of them on facebook, so I kind of knew what most of them were doing. Still, I will take pretty much any excuse to get out of the house these days.
So off I went with Baby AY. I was not ready to leave him home for several hours. He has yet to take a bottle, although I do want to start pumping and introducing him to a bottle soon.
It was definitely a  fun evening. It was interesting to see where everybody is in life, who chose what profession, who is still in school and who is pursuing mommy-ing full-time. Some of it was predictable, some of it not as much. The majority of us are married with kids so there was a lot of comparing notes on that front. We watched some hilarious videos of our high-school performances and did high school trivia questions, most of which I did not know the answer to. AY did his usual cranky evening routine and cried for about an hour straight. Thankfully, people were pretty tolerant, other than giving useless advice to feed him or hold him a certain way.
The evening ended way too late and I had to wait for my ride, which meant I did not get home till midnight. For a sleep-deprived mommy of four, that is super-late. But I am so happy that I went.
The reunion also got me feeling all nostalgic, thinking back to what I was like in high school, what my goals and dream were. I can definitely say that my life did not play itself out the way I thought it would. Here are just some of the things I did not expect to be doing ten years down the line :
-living in the US
-raising a child with Down Syndrome
-being a Rabbi's wife
-working as a doula/advocating for homebirth
-knitting
-pursuing a nursing degree (I was never a science person), etc,
This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just shows that things do not always go as expected.
Yet in many ways I am still the same introverted, music-loving, journal-writing, coffee-drinking, deep-thinking (or so I like to believe) woman who does not neatly fit into any boxes. Slowly learning that life is really a journey rather than a destination and trying to remember to enjoy the wild ride. So thanks for the memories BHS. Looking forward to seeing you all again in ten years, and hopefully even sooner.