Preparing for a whirlwind trip

Amidst my week of various Spanish classes, I am preparing the family for a whirlwind trip to my high school Alma Mater for its 25th Class reunion. Whew and oh-my-goodness! To which my Calvinist friends would be quick to say, "But there is *no* goodness in you!" with a huge grin. Snicker, snicker. Yes. I know.

BUT it is really hard to believe that my 25th high school class reunion has arrived! I truly hope some of my best hs friends are going to make it! Some I have not seen since 1982. Others I have not seen since 1987. I'd love to hug their necks and catch up with them. So please forgive me for the walk down memory lane, which could come across as blatant bragging. It was simply a very full but also a tremendously fun year. I will try to find my old yearbook and post scans from it. I recently found one of my Prom pictures, even. THAT should be enlightening!


In my Senior Year in High School I was:

Spanish Club President, studying my fourth year of Spanish. The exchange student at our school that year became my sister-from-Mexico City. My best friend in this town was a Puerto Rican national. Spanish students (myself included) competed at state and I came home with three medals for sight-reading, poetry memorization, and prose reading in Spanish. (two gold, one bronze)

Student ex-officio member of the city's Library Board (the monthly meetings were so exciting, let me tell you!) This incredible old library with its original creeking, wooden floors, must be the atmosphere that prepared me for my interest in vintage book repair and conservation that I just began studying in 2001 or 2002.

Very involved with music: voted Best all-around musician (I think there must have been a shortage of musicians in our little town!). I played a couple of instruments in the band during marching season and concert season. We competed at state level and our wind symphony got a 1. I was in music theory and music appreciation all year, as well. Learning to play the bassoon really is one of my favorite accomplishments! I was able to carry it into my college years, until I got too busy there to keep it up.

Vocally, I gained a lot of confidence in our music group by my senior year and did a couple of solos, but the most fun we had was traveling and competing as a group and singing at Silver Dollar City in Branson and World's of Fun in Kansas City! Our group's versatility was amazing to me. That same year, we also competed at state level sight-reading, singing girls trios and a Capella madrigals. Woo and also hoo! We got a lot of 1's, I remember.

I was also a Thespian...or is it "once a Thespian, always a Thespian?" Whatever the case, I have long since lost my official card. So while I might still be an official member, I am not the card-carrying kind. Heh heh. Offers of recruitment to our church drama team were just made to me in the last week...does that count?? I must still be official, somewhere. It is probably the one avenue I am pursuing the least of all I was doing then.

I loved writing and art history and music appreciation. I studied Psychology and Social Work with the goal of pursuing it in college.

I "lettered" in many of the above things (except maybe the library board membership, LOL). That was important to some of us, since sports were so important at our school, and other venues (in which I was more involved ;) competed with that high school status hierarchy scale, or so it seemed. It turned out to be a VERY good year, anyway.

And now I return along with other friends and school mates, to see how well we have all aged :-0.

'Tis funny that I am still heavily involved with Spanish, though teaching now, not just learning (which always happens, since I'm not with native speakers every day like I was back in high school).
I still love music and am co-teaching the Junior High performance Ensemble class, of which our youngest son is a big part (Hey, he also loves improv!)

My most recent CD purchase reflects two of my then and now interests: Gloria Estefan's "Noventa Millas," and album of 'música Cubana tradicional.'

We are regulars to the symphony and all my kids play several stringed instruments, along with their father who also builds stringed instruments. He has a "luthiers" club that meets once a week, where he is now teaching some of his friends and Real Chile Men (t) the craft. The man writes me poetry and music. Does it get much better than that, I ask you??

As for old library books: I now restore and conserve them!

I still love writing, so I blog when I am able. Still appreciate Art History but have added photography to my list of joys, with two official Art gallery showings under my belt; one in Yucatan, Mexico, and one here closer to home. I did pursue Psychology in college but burned out on it 3.5 years into it. I DO use it *and* counseling, now that we have three (almost four) teens (and their plethora of friends). The Lord wastes nothing. The more common way to say this is: The Lord is sovereign.

See, I still love the things I used to love, and the Lord blessed me to bring me full circle and make those things a big part of my adult life. I had a decent long and simple singing career which I've partially set aside for now, since our teens are beginning to do a similar thing with their (I should say "God's") own Folksy - Indie twist to it! I just love watching them.

The one thing I do much better as an adult than I ever did in school is reading and book clubs. I was not a reader in school by most standards b/c of various reading issues from early childhood.
I could put up with non-fiction somewhat, but that is pretty much it. Finding C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer in college, then reading all these years (more than 15) of Home schooling helped me make up for that weakness and the loss of time not having read the classics, historical fiction or biographies.

But I'll close my story here. I do look forward to seeing old friends. I hope many of them return. I'll have my camera ready.

Our 7-ish hour road trip should be an adventure. There are some neat historic things to see in this town to show the family, not to mention the three houses in which my family lived while we were there from my fifth to my twelfth grade years. There is a lot to pack into a very short weekend.

Pray for safe travels for all, and I'll see some of you next week!

Boomer Sooner!

And

Go, Cowboys!

Javamom