Hillcrest High School Class of 1999!

Life is complicated. We start thinking we know where we will end up but often find ourselves surprised by the twist and turns of the path before us. I have been pondering this lately with the impending arrival of my 10 year high school reunion next month. My first thoughts were, "10 years? Seriously? Where did the time go?" There are regrets especially when I realized that I have not kept in contact with a single person from that time of my life. Initially my reason for not keeping in contact was that I have ended up such a completely different person than I was, but guess what, so has everybody else! (In theory of course, 10 years should have something to show for itself right?) I don't think I truly knew who I was as a person until well into my twenties. Here are some realizations that I will need to remember next month.

Yes, the majority of the people I will be hoping to see are married and have children. I am not married and have no children. However, I am satisfied with my life right now. Do I want to be single for the rest of my life? No. But I value the experiences and lessons I have learned from this time of my life. Everything that I have learned in the last 10 years have made me, in my opinion, a better person. Those lessons and experiences would probably not have been the same had I been married.

I do not have a glamorous job. Some of the people from my graduating class are well known TV personalities, staffers for Presidents, engineers for Cirque du Soleil, musicians and lawyers. I don't have a job like that. But I do have the great opportunity of teaching children with special needs. It took me a while to find my niche, but from all the things that I have done, I have come to the realization that I enjoy and succeed the most when I have a job that allows me to help others.

My accomplishments over the last 10 years may not impress most, but here are some things I can be proud of:

• I have an awesome music collection. My Cd's are housed in 5 different cases of over 200+ and are separated into categories for easier navigation. I also have a spreadsheet that allows you to search by artist, genre, or year.
• I have become a pretty decent cook. I may not cook for many other than myself most of the time, but through one of my jobs I have become innovative and can not only make my own chocolate dessert syrup but also a pretty darn good meatloaf.
• I know a lot of seemingly useless and random facts, mostly about life from the 1930's, 40's and 50's. This comes from working with Alzheimer's and dementia patients for 4 years.
• I made a difference in finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. Not necessarily a measurable one, but for 15+ years I volunteered at their main Utah fundraiser and spent 4 of those years on their fund raising board, the last two as the Rest Stop Chair.
• I have written music. Mostly religious in nature, I am finally letting some people see it.

So. for my 10 year reunion I say, bring it on! Sure some of the old insecurities will arise, but I will just have to remember this list. Hillcrest High School class of 1999 classmates, see you in a little less than a month!