20 year reunion angst

My 20 year high school reunion is coming up. It brings back lots of memories. Some I'd like to forget, and some I can't believe I've forgotten.

There's this wonderful site started by one of my friends and co-graduates for members of the Arlington High School Class of '88. Although co-graduates isn't quite the right term, I can't find the word I'm looking for. That would be the flicker-flicker vs zot that Mrs. Miller of AP English always talked about. (Hey, look at that, two sentences that end in prepositions!)

I see names of people I don't recognize, yet at one point in time I thought I'd never forget the other 200 or so people that graduated high school with me. Some I remember as cheerleaders, and I wonder, do they still remember those cheers they chanted at every football game for four years? I know I remember some of them. I hear other high schools' cheers occasionally and the AHS, Lions, and maroon and gold of my high school years come flooding back. I wonder if drill team members remember their routines.

I had completely forgotten about this "contraband" t-shirt that was created by another member of the Class of '88 until I read about it on her page on the class site. Yet I just recently saw that shirt in a box when I was moving. How could I forget about something that was such a huge issue at the time because it resulted in someone being suspended? Yet I can remember what I ate for lunch every day during sophomore year? (Oh, yeah, it was really, really healthy [said in an extremely sarcastic tone].)

And I wonder, what should I say to some of these folks? I remember some very well, and others I'm not sure how to go about contacting them. Everyone seems to have kids except me, so I feel sometimes like I got left behind at the dock while everyone else made it to the party boat. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have kids -- the time commitment, the sheer joy of loving a child. So I feel at a loss as to how to try and connect with some people. My children: B.A., M.A., and PhD. My experiences have been how to cope with jet lag while they deal with diapers and preschool. Seeing all these folks, and recalling some of these memories, I sometimes feel like I'm back in high school, intimidated by all these people that are more perfect again. Yet I know that we are all people, that we all have the same feelings of love and joy and pain. But it's so easy to fall into those old patterns even 20 years later.