Ashley Polucci:  

Well, it is April 5 2013. (I mention that because I notice messages posted here tend to hang around forever. That's not a bad thing, but I might very well be dead in my grave for forty years and you'd still be reading this thinking it was current.) :) Anyway, my story isn't very exciting. I became a nurse and have traveled for 30+ years moving every three months to a new location. I work in acute care setting taking care of patients in the emergency room or post-op open heart unit. I may even have taken care of some of my classmates on occasion, but am forbidden to mention it. I visited every state in the union and worked in 26 of them. I'm old and tired now so have stopped traveling and have settled into a permanent position in Wyoming. It's comfortable and yet I still feel like leaving about three times a day. I guess that whole lack-of-commitment philosophy from the 60's stuck with me. I recently joined Classmates because I was invited to a 40th high school reunion. Really? Is that even possible? I spent the better part of today scrolling through the names of classmates from years ago and am feeling very nostalgic. I got little from the list of names except some of the married names of classmates and present locations, which was interesting, but mostly just a tease for more information. Funny but, I am ambivalent about learning more. I remember getting my first kiss on the school bus in first grade from Sandy Hewitt, and wonder if she remembers it as clearly as I do. I remember having a crush on Kimberly Reopell in grammar school and I find myself wondering what she is up to and I wonder if her life turned out exactly as she hoped. Or the fight I got into with Tim Bartlett in 2nd grade, I wonder if he sustained any permanent scars like I did. Then I think "wow that was a long time ago." I would like to know more, like any soap opera aficionado getting sucked into a guilty pleasure. I do know I liked a lot of people in the first 12 years of school and would like to think that they are well and happy. I think there is something special about those interactions in the school years, where young people are molded into the adults they will one day become. I know many of my strongest memories, when reading through the list of names, were of lessons learned and lessons taught in the school yard and study hall. I would like to share some of my accomplishments (and failures) with some of those who helped make me who I am today. Some of those would be teachers, scout leaders, and parents of other classmates who are not likely to be reading in this arena (presumably). Then I remember that the naive boy that existed 40 years ago exists no longer. I suspect that other classmates have changed along the way. While the intensity of the feeling remains, the fact is that we knew each other for only a short period of time (albeit an admittedly intense one, given the changes that we all go through between the ages of 6 and 16) and saying that we know each now other is nothing but a lie. (I stole that conc...Expand for more