Next weekend is my 30 year high school reunion. I missed the 10 year reunion because I was stationed in Korea. I missed the 20 year reunion because my husband at the time was returning from Afghanistan the same weekend. I missed the 25 year reunion because I was TDY to Korea. The Army made sure I was unavailable for all three events. But my best excuse yet—I’ll miss the 30 year reunion because my daughter’s soccer team is playing in the 3v3 National Championships at Disney World.
30 years ago this summer I would never have imagined I would be where I am today. 5 kids. 2 divorces. 1 Bachelor’s degree. 2 Master’s degrees. 25+ years in the military and still going. 2 house mortgages. 1 car payment. Big ol’ John Deer lawnmower in my garage. Living with my dad….no wait, he lives with me.
I could go on and on about all the ups and downs in my personal life, but where did the last 30 years go? Since we left high school in 1988, we’ve had 6 U.S. Presidents. We’ve had 5 Jurassic Park movies. There’s been over 55 different flavors of Oreos. We witnessed 9/11 and have experienced many changes in our way of life since then. And can you imagine how different high school (or even college) would have been if we had the internet and Google?
The last 30 years have been a blur. Birth of my children, college graduations, multiple career changes. The growth of computers and cell phones. The loss of typewriters and pay phones. In 1988, the price of gas was 95 cents per gallon. Now you are lucky if you can find gas for less than 3 dollars on a good day. In 1988, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. Guess who’s there now? The Soviets were there for 10 years….we beat them on that statistic. Who would have thought in 1988 that we would have U.S. troops in Afghanistan for almost 17 years?! Things sure have changed the last 30 years, even when we didn’t notice the time flying by.
Yes, I’ll miss the 30 year high school reunion next weekend. But its 2018! We have Facebook and Instagram to keep us all up-to-date. Thank God, we didn’t have social media in 1988!