I have always found it odd when people talk about their high school reunions. The discussion is usually about how they are dreading it and how much they hated people they went to school with. So when I got the invite to my 20 year reunion, I wasn’t too sure what to think. Was it really that bad as everyone made out to be?

It’s not like I hated school. I didn’t have any bad experiences. I was well-liked by my teachers. I guess the thing that stood out for me the most was my friends. They’re the ones that made those years so fantastic and memorable.

The experiences with them was what played a part in how I viewed life when I left school 20 years ago and how I learnt to value friendship, trust and loyalty.

So I went. Nervous as hell (especially since KK was away and I went alone). It was like stepping back in time… I could not stop smiling.

My bestie from school (and who still is) put together a slide show of everyone: what we all looked like in 1992, what we looked like now, what we were up to…

It was so cool. How weird to see that friends from school were now parents with kids and full time jobs and responsibilities!

I imagined that we would all be sitting around quizzing each other about our present day lives but it was not to be. All we could talk about were memories from school. Stories of rebellion, our favourite and worst teachers, whether or not our headmaster was still alive. It was awesome to laugh and remember back.

No one really cared who was a big shot director now. No one even bothered to ask where I worked. It wasn’t even about who had put on weight, who had gone bald and who had/had not aged well. When we looked at each other’s faces, we saw the 18 year olds we knew from 1992.

I am so glad I went. It’s the latest I got home from a party in a long time and was on a high for so long. A part of me is happy to have seen all those faces and friends, but a part of me is sad that time is flying by so quickly. So much has happened during those 20 years. Ups and downs. We are sadly not the young, innocent, carefree youth we were then.

But for one evening, we most definitely were!