Diary of a Middle-aged Woman

02/07/07 - Class Reumion

I recently attended my twenty-five year class reunion. I hadn't attended any of my reunions before this one, so I didn't know what to expect. I dragged my poor husband with me because I wasn't sure if I would have anyone to talk to. He was a good sport about the whole thing, and besides, he got a meal out of it.

The first thing I noticed was that many guys I graduated with were now "follically challenged". In other words, there were a lot of bald men in that room. Guys who had thick flowing hair were now hairless. Isn't nature cruel to men in that regard? It doesn't seem fair that they should suffer the trauma of losing their hair to baldness. However, having said that, I have to admit that I smiled to myself when I saw the guy who thought he was the greatest in highschool standing there completely bald.

One sight that shocked me was seeing a guy that I had a big crush on now a mere shadow of his former self. In school he was extremely cute. He had dark curly hair, perpetually tanned skin and a splash of freckles across his nose. He had the lean body of a baseball player and the most brilliantly blue eyes that twinkled when he smiled. Now, twenty-five years later, the only way that I knew it was him was by his brilliantly blue eyes. The rest of him was huge! The lean body was gone, the dark curly hair was now grey and wirey-looking, and his face was pastey-white. Talk about shocked! I felt like asking him "What happened to you?"

The women definitely retained their looks better. In fact, in some cases they looked better than twenty-five years ago. It's almost as if they needed time to grow into their faces or something.

Some people came over to me and were surprised when I said who I was. I could see their eyes opening wide in surprise. They were blown away by the 'good' transformation that had taken place in my 'looks department'. Afterall, now I know how to apply make-up (a huge help), I didn't gain any weight, and my hair wasn't grey. Believe me, in that room of middle-age has-beens, I looked good!

Others told me that I looked the same. At first I took this as a compliment and felt good about my appearance. But once I thought about it, this kind of disturbed me. When I was in school, I was not the 'pretty girl'. In fact, I was often called ugly. If I look the same, then that means I am still ugly - right? So, in reality, they weren't complimenting me at all, but were making fun of me in a subtle way.

I did have a good time and it was nice re-connecting with people that I didn't see in all those years. With some I was gratified to know that nature took their greatest assets - their looks. It seemed to level the playing field in many respects, as if to say, "see you are no better than anyone else afterall."

They say you can't go home again, and they are right. Things are never the way they were, or the way we remember them. For me, I'm just glad that the smart-assed guy who always teased me was now tipping the scales at three hundred pounds, twice divorced and "looking for love".

Of course I had to go over and say something to him. And do you know what he did? He acted like he didn't even remember me! This was a guy who, on a daily basis, made it a point to make fun of me in some way. He was still a jerk. If we were in school now, looking the way we both do, he would be the one who is teased! I wanted to say something like that to him, but I figured fate kind of took care of my revenge for me.

Things are never the same when you try to go back and revisit your youth. But, sometimes, they are better!