Are you still friends with any of your friends from high school? How have they changed since then?
It’s funny you should ask about this as 2022 is right around the corner. June 8, 2022, marks 50 years since I graduated from Chaska High School. The answer is yes, I am still in contact with a few friends from high school. I believe there were 120 in our graduating class. Everyone knew everyone. I had a few close friends but I got along with everybody. I’ve been back home to attend every reunion. This time I am on the reunion committee for June.
My best friend was Diane Bjornson and we still connect for dinner or pool time every time I’m in Minnesota. I have lived in Indiana for 40 years now, so we probably see one another once a year or so, but each time we strike up a conversation we pick up right where we left off. It’s like time nor distance exists. We used to ride the school bus for an hour every morning and every afternoon, chattering all the way to and from. Then we’d call each other as soon as we got home. I still remember her phone number: 612-474-8619. Our birthdays were one month apart; mine in June and Diane’s in July. We both got our driver’s licenses on the same day.
In a weird coincidence, we both became first-time mothers at the age of 35, and they were just one month apart; Lauren in November and Walker in December. A couple of years later we both added a second child to our families; a baby girl for Diane and a baby boy for me.
Another weird coincidence: her dad’s name was Francis, my husband’s middle name is Francis after his grandfather, my first child’s middle name was Francis, and my first grandchild’s middle name is Francis. Diane’s dad died of cancer when we were teenagers, and her mother raised six kids by herself. Quite a feat! We enjoyed quite a few wild adventures along the way, but that’s a “whole ‘nother show” as they say.
My observation about all of us changing over time is that the older we get the more we become like our parents. So rest assured, your kids DO hear us while they are growing up, even if they appear not to!
