Taken last Saturday at our high school reunion. Meet Anna and Ciara. They can be stubborn, annoying, bossy and loud but I always miss them. Always. Anna is the type of person you take along with you when you want an adventure. She’ll skydive, bungee jump or travel the world with you without thinking twice. She’s fearless. Cia just recently returned from Iceland, where she stayed after high school. She’s independent and defiant and all kinds of crazy. But underneath the tough exterior is a sweetheart, more than willing to give love to whoever she opens her heart to. We’ve been through a lot. Intense fights, boyfriends, long distance friendships and relentless change. Over and over and over again. But I guess what’s great about them is that they absolutely refuse to let me go. That ensures an invitation to every party, every reunion, every sleepover, every everything - even when I choose to go all MIA on them which happens more often than I’d like to admit. I see their love. I feel it. And because they shove themselves into my life continuously, I’m forced to believe that high school really does never end. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Taken last Saturday at our high school reunion. Meet Anna and Ciara. They can be stubborn, annoying, bossy and loud but I always miss them. Always.

Anna is the type of person you take along with you when you want an adventure. She’ll skydive, bungee jump or travel the world with you without thinking twice. She’s fearless.

Cia just recently returned from Iceland, where she stayed after high school. She’s independent and defiant and all kinds of crazy. But underneath the tough exterior is a sweetheart, more than willing to give love to whoever she opens her heart to.

We’ve been through a lot. Intense fights, boyfriends, long distance friendships and relentless change. Over and over and over again. But I guess what’s great about them is that they absolutely refuse to let me go. That ensures an invitation to every party, every reunion, every sleepover, every everything - even when I choose to go all MIA on them which happens more often than I’d like to admit. I see their love. I feel it. And because they shove themselves into my life continuously, I’m forced to believe that high school really does never end.

And that’s not always a bad thing.

2 years ago  2 notes View high resolution

graduation:

I always tell people that I think high school reunions are overrated. I convinced myself that the trick was to attend as infrequently as possible because it felt less contrived that way. Not at all as if you’re all just a bunch of people forced under one roof who share a past yet have gone completely separate ways. Instead, it feels more like something familiar. Something nostalgic and oddly comforting. Like your favorite song when you were 14. Or the memory of your first kiss. Or the feeling of prom night before your date picks you up.

Every reunion, I enter the place thinking that my being there is pointless. That the truth is we’re different people. That high school is dead.

But then I see Butch who tutored me in math class and is now an engineer of sorts. Or Biboy who was the most popular boy in my batch. Or Minstrelle, the valedictorian. I see all these wonderful people from my past, each of which I have at least one horrible and one wonderful memory with, and I realize that it is my cynicism that is overrated. That, yes, high school was emotional and messy but I’m lucky enough to say that it was, for the most part, also a bunch of good good times.

So I guess what I’m really trying to say is: I think I’ll be seeing you guys more often. I didn’t realize I missed you till I realized I missed you.

2 years ago  5 notes

Taken last Saturday at our high school reunion. Meet Anna and Ciara. They can be stubborn, annoying, bossy and loud but I always miss them. Always. Anna is the type of person you take along with you when you want an adventure. She’ll skydive, bungee jump or travel the world with you without thinking twice. She’s fearless. Cia just recently returned from Iceland, where she stayed after high school. She’s independent and defiant and all kinds of crazy. But underneath the tough exterior is a sweetheart, more than willing to give love to whoever she opens her heart to. We’ve been through a lot. Intense fights, boyfriends, long distance friendships and relentless change. Over and over and over again. But I guess what’s great about them is that they absolutely refuse to let me go. That ensures an invitation to every party, every reunion, every sleepover, every everything - even when I choose to go all MIA on them which happens more often than I’d like to admit. I see their love. I feel it. And because they shove themselves into my life continuously, I’m forced to believe that high school really does never end. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Taken last Saturday at our high school reunion. Meet Anna and Ciara. They can be stubborn, annoying, bossy and loud but I always miss them. Always.

Anna is the type of person you take along with you when you want an adventure. She’ll skydive, bungee jump or travel the world with you without thinking twice. She’s fearless.

Cia just recently returned from Iceland, where she stayed after high school. She’s independent and defiant and all kinds of crazy. But underneath the tough exterior is a sweetheart, more than willing to give love to whoever she opens her heart to.

We’ve been through a lot. Intense fights, boyfriends, long distance friendships and relentless change. Over and over and over again. But I guess what’s great about them is that they absolutely refuse to let me go. That ensures an invitation to every party, every reunion, every sleepover, every everything - even when I choose to go all MIA on them which happens more often than I’d like to admit. I see their love. I feel it. And because they shove themselves into my life continuously, I’m forced to believe that high school really does never end.

And that’s not always a bad thing.

graduation:

I always tell people that I think high school reunions are overrated. I convinced myself that the trick was to attend as infrequently as possible because it felt less contrived that way. Not at all as if you’re all just a bunch of people forced under one roof who share a past yet have gone completely separate ways. Instead, it feels more like something familiar. Something nostalgic and oddly comforting. Like your favorite song when you were 14. Or the memory of your first kiss. Or the feeling of prom night before your date picks you up.

Every reunion, I enter the place thinking that my being there is pointless. That the truth is we’re different people. That high school is dead.

But then I see Butch who tutored me in math class and is now an engineer of sorts. Or Biboy who was the most popular boy in my batch. Or Minstrelle, the valedictorian. I see all these wonderful people from my past, each of which I have at least one horrible and one wonderful memory with, and I realize that it is my cynicism that is overrated. That, yes, high school was emotional and messy but I’m lucky enough to say that it was, for the most part, also a bunch of good good times.

So I guess what I’m really trying to say is: I think I’ll be seeing you guys more often. I didn’t realize I missed you till I realized I missed you.

graduation:

About:

that's when i realized that words have wings;
they're kind of like birds but mostly like children,
whom you groom and raise.
you mold them and shape them well
and, like the sky that has no limits,
you hope that someday,
somebody will take them home,
call them their own;
that they will find a place to belong.
-amena brown

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