Success
10 years ago, I graduated from Larry A. Ryle High School. Whoa! Where was the time gone?!? High school feels like forever ago, but at the same time, thinking ahead to the future, it doesn’t seem all that long ago. Especially when you have just had your ten year reunion…
This past weekend was my reunion. I was involved with the planning for the reunion as well as working on the website, so I was hoping things would go smoothly and that it would be a successful event. Actually, it was more than a single event. We had a family picnic on Friday then a school tour followed by a buffet dinner on Saturday. Since several people were coming in from out of town, might as well give them something to do all weekend! It’s funny that we had several events planned for our reunion while I’ve heard from other people, both in other classes at Ryle and other schools, that they haven’t heard a thing about even having a reunion.
The buffet was the main event and we had approximately 60-70 attend. That number includes spouses and other guests, so in the end, I’d say about a fourth of the class was there. We were expecting more, based on the RSVPs, so we were a little disappointed in the turn out. Nevertheless, I felt the reunion was a success. Those that came seemed to enjoy themselves and surprisingly, most people stayed the entire night, until midnight.
Some people had dramatically changed since the five year reunion, while others seemed to have remained the same. There were those that had just changed in their appearance and others whose personality had greatly matured. The cliques were still there, though they weren’t as tight and as exclusive as they used to be. If you think about it, though, it’s hard for there not to be these “segregated groups” at reunions such as this. I, for one, would naturally gravitate first towards those people that I hung out with more often, and would later meander over to those that I didn’t know so well.
I tell ya, it was really good to see some old friends and hear what’s going on in their lives. It’s amazing how many people have not only married, but are churning out the kids. There were three couples that had three kids already! Glad to know I’m not the only single one out there, though 
It was also nice to reminisce, especially during the school tour. We left hello messages on our favorite teachers’ white boards that I’m sure will make their day. I miss some of those teachers – Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Kanabroski, Mr. Ryan…
The title of this post was picked for two reasons. Not only does it refer to the relative success of the reunion, but to a superlative I was chosen for in high school – Most Likely to Succeed. Over the course of the evening, I had a brief discussion on this and was asked if I thought I had lived up to that. After a brief moment to reflect on it, I answer that I was indeed successful, though not by the definition most people use to define success. Most consider a person successful if they’re married, have a family, a nice house, expensive car, high annual salary, hold a position in upper management at their place of employment, etc. I’m not successful in those terms, but success goes so much beyond that in my mind. I’m happy where I am now, happy with the person that I’ve turned out to be in the ten years since high school. There is so much more to life than a job, and I’m glad I’ve realized that early on and haven’t thrown my life away working 80 hours a week. I’ve learned to be responsible with my finances and make do with what I have. I’ve invested in a house in a nice neighborhood. I have some great friends and a great family that supports me. I know there’s potential for me to do more with my life as well as room to grow and areas of my life that need work, but that too is part of success. You can’t succeed if you always stay where you are, in your comfort zone.
Ten years have come and gone since high school, five years since college, and I’m getting close to thirty… The time sure does fly!
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never flown?! that blows me away! typo in the 'caliper'. 
Glad you had fun at your reunion. I skipped mine. The only people I care to see from High school, I already talk to or see on a regular basis. Emily’s is coming up…wonder if we/she will go to that one.
Glad to hear about the success of your class reunion. I am getting rathered excited about attending mine. Though the crowd will be a bit smaller and its nothing as fancy as yours, it will be great to catch up with people. We also had a 5 year reunion which in itself was fun, but I look back on that and think how much different my life is from just 5 years ago. I’ll write more next week on my blog.
that last part about success… i gotta say, i can’t read that without imagining that it’s the end of some coming of age movie and there’s some popular song being played in the background (growing increasingly louder) as the narrarator presents the audience with his monologue. i mean that as a compliment; inspiring and well said, my friend.
glad you had a good time.. though i’m not exactly wanting to go back to ryle next week myspelf