Back back to Culver days...

Ok, I'll give this a try again. Without prompting in the form of pointed questions from friends, I really struggle with general updates. I find that amusing since the original purpose of this blog was to get away from mass emails and giving recent life details over and over again to friends. A bit impersonal? Probably. More efficient? Yes. So for now I'm ok with erring on the side of efficiency. Don't take it personally, dear friends! And so without further ado and in no particular order, here we go!

My class reunion was this past weekend at Culver. Now, for those of you who aren't aware, I went to four high schools, none of which hold overly fond memories (though not really because of the actual schools). While I probably wouldn't feel compelled to attend these sorts of reunions anyway, the moving around certainly didn't motivate me any further! But even so, I went to some of the activities since I happened to be in the area anyway. It was truly a serendipitous weekend. I learned a few important things. First of all, high school is crummy for the vast majority of people. Now, I knew this already, but while it's neither better nor worse than the "average high school," Culver is still a different animal that allows for different Unless you've been there, you can't validate others. So in a sense, this was the first time they were validated in that sort of meaningful way as an adult. Although this paints a depressing picture, I don't mean for that. Culver was a good experience and is a good school. I was just a really troubled teen.

I also began to really understand that by this point in our lives, the three year difference between you as a freshman and "them" as seniors isn't really much at all anymore- we're all adults and it's more or less a level playing field. Suddenly I realized that I'm not limited to "ninety-nine, the last of our kind." The other people who made up my life as a high schooler are available to foster friendships with.  It's, well, neat. I'm not saying that suddenly I feel like a full-fledged adult (really, who ever actually does?) or that I gained deep friendships. But I did connect with a few people in a way meaningful to me.

In various ways, the concept that Culver is an inescapable part of our lives kept coming up over the weekend. Just seeing somebody on an escalator on the opposite side of the world or in your little corner of the state, you have a connection. That's not unique to Culver by any means, and admittedly my association was two-fold and brief, but a sense of belonging is something I often struggled with growing up. I see that for better or worse, I have it with Culver. It's... novel and fascinating.

I'll admit I feel cheesy and perhaps a bit overly sentimental and lame even expressing this, but this weekend caught me off-guard. And I had a good time. And Lake Maxinkuckee is pretty.