Naples High Class of '97

You know you’re old when…

Your 10 year high school reunion is just months away. Sure, that is still only moderately “old” or as I prefer to believe not really old at all, but merely the oldest I’ve yet experienced. Bla bla bla…it’s all relative BLA! But when I think back on the ten freaking years since my graduation I am absolutely flabbergasted. Ten years is long enough that I hardly remember the person I was back then, much less my classmates. However, that hasn’t kept me from trying.



This was the scene at my house starting at about 8:30pm Friday night. Tons of fun over here at Casa de la Smoochy, let me tell you. To round out the night I spent an hour under a scalding shower trying (unsuccessfully) to massage out a clogged milk duct. After that I got sucked in and spent over an hour perusing through the profiles of folks who attended Naples High School from 1994 through 1997. Yup, I’m cool. I bet this is exactly how you wish your Friday night went. If this doesn’t scream old enough to remember Captain Kangaroo nothing does.

I suppose I’ve just outed myself as to having a MySpace account. Oh well, you already knew I was a dork. Go look if you have to, but come back when you’re done laughing. Look, I know I am too OLD for MySpace but how am I supposed to track down my long lost biology lab partner? (Lindsey, if you’re out there, don’t worry… I’m sure YOU don’t spend your free time using MySpace…it just worked for the post.)

Why any of my classmates would actually want to track ME down is another story. I was a sucky friend in high school. I’m not sure what it was. Low self-esteem coupled with that all too common propensity of youth to regard yourself as the center of the universe? But, I didn’t get to know many people in school. I ate lunch by myself or hiding out with a small group of fellow anti-social kids in the drama teacher’s office. Good old Mr. Witt: he was an eccentric old loon who retired the year I graduated. He claimed that kids had degraded so far in the last ten years he taught that it was no longer worth doing it…*sigh* He was out mascot.

I wasn’t unpopular, and I know that other kids knew who I was. I was voted the Most Unique of my graduating class…that’s a good thing, right? But I never truly let anyone in. I had an older boyfriend my junior and senior years, so most of my social life existed outside of the school. And sadly, I lost touch with the very few close high school friends I did have after we graduated and left for college…

When I think back on all the faces that I passed everyday in the hall, I realize I was just too self absorbed to get to know anyone. And what a shame that is. Looking through the MySpace profiles I saw that one of my classmates has become a model, one a deejay, some are in or have been in the Gulf fighting, one is a fireman, and several of the most popular kids seemed to have gone as a group to Gainesville (UF) where their friendships were undoubtedly cemented and hopefully their Stiffler-like antics provided them with enough great (and drunken) moments to fill a life time of remember-whens. And that’s just the MySpace set…

Imagine what everyone else has been up too?! I’m actually far more excited about this reunion than 18 year old anti-social Becca would have ever supposed. I can’t wait to party like it’s 1999 (or 1997) with my blast from the past class. I want to see pictures of peoples’ kids, and do shots with the folks the old me deemed too shallow (read cool) to hang out with. You know because in high school I was deep. The old me was a jerk. Whereas the more experienced person I've become realizes that those kids were probably just like me…but less judgmental. Okay, least I forget it was HIGH SCHOOL; we were all pretty judgmental and cliquish. But, I’m hoping now that we’ve all grown up we can come together for one night of “Remember when?”; “Where are they now”; “Wooo-Hooo we’re so OLD!”; “TEN YEARS!!!” good time.

You know me, I'll be the one with baby pictures...