Can you see me?

Something weird happened when I went to my 10-year high school reunion (10 years ago). I went to it with high hopes; I was looking forward to seeing old friends, listening to music that represented my youth, all in all, I thought it would all be a great time. When I arrived it was like "Who are you?" and those were not my words, those were the words spoken to me over and over again. I mean, I was not THE most popular person in school but at the time I was pretty confident that I had friends! I mean, I danced on the kickline with 25 other girls, we were part of the music department, I went to parties, I was always with a group of people, I never sat alone at lunch or in class. And yet while all of these people where running up to each other screaming "Oh...My...God...I can't believe it's YOU!", I did not experience that moment. Don't get me wrong, some people DID remember me but it became obvious as the night wore on that I was clearly a forgetable person.

When the twenty year reunion came up last year, needless to say, I made no attempt to attend. You know, a ten year reunion is really the "Look at me!" party. Everyone still looks really good, you've established yourself and for the most part, you are still optimistic about the future. The twenty year reunion becomes more of the "Look at her!" party where you sit around and laugh at how bad people have begun to age. So I decided not to go and while I had some friends tell me that they went and had a good time, when the list of people who were there was rattled off, I couldn't put many faces to the names. I didn't feel as if I had missed much.

So imagine my surprise today when I got an e-mail via facebook from a person who claimed that we were friends in the 6th grade! I didn't recognize the name at first and then realized, that she was probably using her married name. After a few e-mail exchanges, it all came tumbling back. I was who she thought I was and vice-versa. We had been friends and neighbors from like 4th - 6th grade! What a time I had this afternoon laughing with her about our childhood and exchanging pictures. Her daughter is a miniature version of her at the age when we were friends and that just made me smile.

I guess I wasn't invisible after all. Yay me!