Turns out, 10 years is a long time...

I have my 10 year high school reunion this weekend. Let's just stop there for a second and dwell on how weird that is while admiring my senior picture head tilt...

 

Ok, I'm back from my "I'm getting older" cry break.

It seems like just yesterday I was walking across the stage at Argonia High, getting my diploma from and hugging my dad, who was the president of the school board at the time...and walking up to give my Salutatorian speech and trying not to throw up at the thought of public speaking in front of the whole town.  It seems like my brother just recently did things like make a shirt where he can velcro messages like "Way to go Beth!"  Oh wait, he DOES still do things like that, though that was one of his more genius moments! 

 

I remember the day I moved in to my dorms at Friends that summer and telling my mom that it seemed unreal...that I didn't feel mature or old enough to go to college, that I felt like a 5 year old little girl playing dress-up. I remember her telling me that feeling doesn't go away and that she was a grown woman, moving her youngest child out of the house, and she still felt that way too. I think back on that conversation a lot...because I still feel out of place a lot, even with all the changing that's been happening over the past decade.

A LOT has changed over the past ten years. The basics are this: I went to college, got married, had two kids, started a career, changed churches, etc.  The specifics are too numerous to write about here, but let's just say this:

These past 10 years have aged me more than their number...and though I still feel like a little girl playing dress up, that girl is wrestling with a worn and aged woman who is threatening to take over sooner than later. 

Add to the fact that I spend a LOT of time with toddlers and teenagers throughout the week and that's enough to make anyone who's been out of high school for 10 years feel terribly outdated.  Just recently, I had to explain to the girls in the youth group how you had to have a college email address to join Facebook when it started. Good grief, Facebook hasn't even been around for as long as I've been out of high school and it's dating me!

Just to give us all a little perspective, here's some refresher on what was happening in 2003:

Arnold Schwarzenegger took office as the Governor of California
Apple launched iTunes
The book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released
The Department of Homeland Security officially began operation
Roy Horn (Siegfried & Roy) was attacked by a tiger
Finding Nemo was released

Johnny Cash died

 

These songs all came out in 2003:

Rock Your Body (Justin Timberlake)

Beautiful (Christina Aguilera)

In Da Club (50 Cent)

Jenny From the Block (Jennifer Lopez)

Clocks (Coldplay)

Hey Ya! (OutKast)

 

In some ways, it feels like no time has passed since I left Argonia. In others, it seems like it's been a lifetime since I was there.

So now that I feel disconnected from my previous, younger self, I'm looking forward to catching up with some old friends and seeing where the past 10 years have taken all of us!