Coincidence?

[LauraP]

This is soooo strange, but my 25th high school reunion is coming up (I won't be going, but am coming back to my hometown the week before, and will be catching up with a few of the people I liked back then, a million years ago!), and folks have been coming out of the woodwork, dropping notes to me, asking for other people's contact information, etc.

Through all these contacts, I found out that my first boyfriend from high school is now an award-winning photographer, and has been specializing in photography of special-needs children, with a focus on autism. I dropped him a note just now to let him know about the past quarter-century, and to tell him about Sierra. It will be interesting to know how things have turned out for him, and how he has gotten interested in autism (does he have a child with autism as well? is it a challenge professionally to photograph people who don't love to pose for photos?).

Isn't life strange?

[Keggy]

There are no coincidences. You have a message for each other. Hopefully you will all take advantage of what opportunity arrises from this.

Geeze laura, haven't you read the Tenth insight?

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

Yeah, I agree...people come & go through your life for a reason!

How exciting! I can't wait to hear what happens next!

[The Pogue]

Have a great time at your reunion. The 25th was the only one I went to, and I am very glad I went.

I re-established ties with a friend from long ago. We have far more in common now than during high school. It amazes us both the parallel turns our lives have taken; challenges we worked through which made us stronger people.

[The Pogue]

Not to hijack your thread, but another thought just occurred to me.

The man who served as my mentor when I first entered the professional world became a lifelong friend. We've both moved across several states and changed jobs since working together 25 years ago. We recently talked, and it occurred to me that we wind up seeking each other out when during 'transition points' in our lives: child birth, divorce, cross-country moves, children reaching adulthood, personal and professional crises, etc.

25 years post-high school is a period when we many of us are loosing our parents, or having to look at long-term care, our children are reaching adulthood, we're well-established in our fields, but may be re-evaluating whether we've followed our dreams, etc. Maybe these issues cause us to think back to high school, which was essentially a 4- year transitionary period from childhood to adulthood.

Ok, I'm babbling like an idiot now. On with the thread...

[LauraP]

Not babbling--in fact, I think 25 years is a big deal. I've gotten notes from several people now who I didn't even think remembered me (I was a nerdy quiet student and didn't do ANY extracurricular activities, and only dated a couple of guys), and we all appear to have had the scenic tour of life now. Found out through the photographer ex that the other boyfriend still lives in Nashville and has a kid with Asperger's (sensing a theme here?) and is getting his Masters in Social Work. Another friend who I had lost touch with has 3 kids, and has drifted among different jobs in creative fields. Nobody seems to have stuck with a "career track"--in fact, of all the people I knew then, I felt like I was the least driven (in fact, being a program manager now--basically administering the work that other scientists do--I frequently feel the same way).But I've stuck to an academic track and now to a career track that has worked well for me. High school is a lousy predictor of "most likely to"