Reunion With My High School Friends

THEN - Suzanne talking to
Mr. McNaughton

THEN - Lexie with
her Dad, Mr. McNaughton

THEN - Suzanne at AISD High School graduation dinner

You always wonder......has she changed?  What will we talk about?  Will she look different?  Do I look different?  These are the questions that go through your head when you make the decision to meet up with friends from the past, and Lexie, Chris and I have had quite a few months to think about these.  This week we met up as a trio for the first time since 1974.  

THEN - Chris and Tommy at
AISD High School graduation
dinner

It all started in 1968 when the American International School of Dusseldorf started.  Lexie and Chris, my soon-to-be best friends, were already enrolled there when I arrived to live in Germany that December.  As time went on, we became firm and fast friends, sharing a lot of laughs together, traveling, shopping, going to the Altstadt and just hanging out together.  

     

Graduation saw us go our separate ways, as happens with children at international schools.  It was hard to stay in touch in those days.  There was no internet or Facebook and phone calls were outrageously expensive.  The only way was to write a letter (time-consuming!) and as we became busy with university, jobs and demands of family life, we soon lost touch with one another.  

Fast-forward to 2008.  The internet is an everyday reality of life - almost a necessity!  Facebook has been invented.  Phone calls are cheap (but you still have to know a number to phone!).  Letters.....well, hardly anyone would write letters any more.  Suzanne, Lexie and Chris have found one another again, after a silence of many, many years.  We had  SO much to catch up on!  Some things were easy to impart on FB and we unfolded our stories for one another as time went on.

NOW - WOW, we all look the same (well, sort of!)

NOW - We FINALLY got together!

NOW - lunch out

NOW - Lexie, tickling a spider!

Fast-forward again to  2011.  By now we all live in various parts of the world - Suzanne in Shanghai, China, Lexie in the US southwest, and Chris in the US eastern seaboard.  However, by March, I knew I was going to be able to make a summer trip to the States and I put forward a tentative thought - would we like to meet up somewhere relatively central for a few days and connect again?  The answer from both Chris and Lexie was a resounding YES!!!!  

It took a lot of hard work to make it happen.  Coordinating with the other 2.  Organizing rides and plane trips.  Renting a car.  Finding time out of busy schedules. Booking a hotel.  But finally the day came, and what a day it was!  

I drove to Kansas City.  I would like to report that it was hard, but after Shanghai traffic, I must say the driving (and crossing the road) is soooo easy.  Chris arrived at the airport and I recognized her in an instant.  The years had been kind to her and we reconnected immediately!  It seemed so surreal, but comfortable and right as we spent the day shopping and talking!

By 8:00 pm we had found our hotel and we were waiting in the lobby for Lexie to arrive.  There was a knock on the window and we raced outside to greet her.  No silences or awkward moments with her, either, as we began discovering the paths that our various lives have taken us!  

NOW - At the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum

So, we have spent several days talking, walking, shopping, eating and drinking, confounding the locals (!) and reconnecting all these years later.  This has been an amazing week - thanks ladies!