High School Story/Reflections/Memories:
I can't believe 50 years have passed since we all sang, "Hail Highland High"! I still feel like I am trying to decide what I'm going to do after high school. I don't know about the rest of you but I still use high school as a major defining moment in my life's timeline. I have been back to highland a time or two to visit councilors for my kids and it doesn't even resemble life as I knew it. The demographics are so different... however there is one constant, Dean Collett. The guy is immortal and not only remembers me but can recollect detailed experiences as if they were yesterday. I have tried to tell my kids what Dr. Scanland's class was like or how we never had hall passes but they don't get it. I remember how traumatized I was over little things back then and how perspective only comes with time. I remember A Capella Choir and Mr. C. I have a friend, Jon Schmidt who has achieved considerable success at the piano. I tell my kids, "if you think he can play, you should have seen his big sister Roseanne (rest her soul) accompany A Capella... she was a true genius." I picked up one life long friend in highschool who has remained my best friend through thick and thin, Mark Petersen. I will be eternally grateful for that union. I am also fortunate to count Dan Eastmond as one of my life long friends who I can jam (fiddle) with to this day. It is fun to tell people that I knew Terry Tempest Williams since she was 5 years old and that she is actually normal. All in all, high school was a pretty good time and I am looking forward to closing the gap on 50 years. Warning, I don't exactly look or feel the same as I did then but there are tradeoffs.