subject: High School Yearbooks [print this page] I recently moved after graduating from college, and while I was unpacking the last fee boxes that came from my parents' house I came upon one that held some old mementos including my old high school yearbooks. Since I hadn't seen them in years, probably not since the summer after my high school graduation, I found myself sitting down to go through them.
We all know the people who think high school was the best years of their lives. The jocks who relive their glory days until their kids are old enough to play, and the girls who cling to the cliques they lived for back in the cafeteria. I will never be one of those people. I pretty much just went to school so I could graduate and move on, so I figured I would never feel much nostalgia for those times.
It wasn't until I sat down and looked through the yearbook that afternoon that I realized I do miss it in some ways.
Now, everyone knows the worst part of yearbook is looking back at the photos years later and realizing that the outfit you thought was so fashionable and flattering at the age of eighteen actually wasn't or that that the haircut you loved so much looked more like something out of bad teen horror movie. Looking through the pictures of myself and my classmates I couldn't believe it. Suddenly the boy who appeared to be a complete heartthrob in school now just looked a little too skinny with pimples and we all looked so incredibly young.
Once I made it through the laughter at those staged headshots we all wanted to badly to look good in I found the ones I was really looking for.
The pictures from the sporting events and other school events were the real ones I was looking for. Instead of posed smiles we actually looked like we were having fun. It reminded me of all the freezing nights at football games and the bus rides to tennis matched that were always filled with the good natured gossip of teammates and the latest hit songs. As amazing as it is, I actually missed those days and the sense of belonging that came with being part of a team and seeing your friends every day.
Despite the fact that we've all moved on and haven't spoken in years I felt the sudden urge to reach out to some of those girls with whom I used to share so much of my life. Maybe it was worth going back to that time if only to reminisce over cocktails once in a while.
You still couldn't pay me to go back to my teen years with anything less than a million dollars and all the knowledge I have now, but perhaps it wasn't as pointless as I remembered. Somehow just looking at that old high school yearbook was enough to bring back the warm fuzzy feeling of friendship, so if that's all it took there must have really been something there.
