Since High School

This week I suddenly decided to take interest in facebook, which resulted in several high school friends asking what I have been up to for the last five years. It's kind of strange to look back.

Five years ago I was preparing to go to Spain to be an au pair to an unknown family. I thought I knew a lot more Spanish than I actually did and was quite hung up on asserting my independence by going. Spain turned out to be a pretty good experience after the first month. The first month, on the other hand, included such highlights as the children refusing to learn my name and crying whenever left with me, almost being taken advantage of, but instead getting brought home, drunk, by the police, and truly understanding how little I understood. It got better.

Since that point there was the whole of college, with some nearly failing out and barely graduating moments. There was toying with the thought of transferring, eventually overcome by laziness and fear. There was getting bored and spending a summer in Costa Rica. There was the semester in Mexico and a lot of classes I'll never use again. There were friends and significant others, drinking and drug use, angsts and joys. How does one really summarize the whole of their college experience, the truly formative years, to someone?

Since college, life has continued and taught me how much college worked and how much it still left me to learn. There has been learning to live anywhere and how to basically be a nomad. I work for the man and it's not entirely disagreeable. Working is just what pays the bills, not actually what I do. I read, I cook, I write, I travel, I hike, but work is just what takes up 40 hours a week. This phase of life will end sometime, too.

It's strange to look back five years at all the little things that made me cry or worry and realize they, for the most part, are unimportant now. It's also strange to realize now much the last 5 years have changed things, changed me. Stranger yet is to think about how it must also have changed all those high school friends. I'm not really certain we know each other anymore, but perhaps we should. At least I think I've gotten better.