Mark Bumpas:  

Life Married for almost 28 years. Two kids, a boy 20, and a girl 18. Workplace I work at an engineering firm in Wichita. I've been there for almost twenty four years. I wrote this piece a week or two after the 30th renunion...enjoy. :-) The Art of Reminiscing (Ode to the 30th Reunion) Reunions have been around for a longggg time. Ever since Grog the caveman went to the other side of the forest to peddle his new invention the wheel, then reunited with his fellow "hairybacks" and shared his tales with them, people have been having reunions. Families, graduating classes, men who fought shoulder to shoulder in war. Getting together and filling each other in on the events of their respective lives and recalling times long ago while laughing and smiling. Some graduating classes, such as ours, have been getting together every five years since we left the halls of our beloved South High. In the past thirty years many life changing events have taken place, from births and deaths, to marriages and divorces, to the tragedy we all shared in on September 11, 2001. Some have been extremely successful, while others have toiled many jobs and still live a paycheck to paycheck existence. Many once thin, are now "heavier". Many mop topped young men have turned into billiard balls due to the inability to keep their follicles in their place. Cuties have turned into well, not so cuties. Strapping, Herculean like young men, have developed a ledge on which to set the remote. Some still have friends from high school that they socialize with today. Others, like me, simply went to school, attended games, then snatched that diploma and never looked back, not taking the time to socialize much and therefore causing GREAT fear upon themselves when attending their first reunion after thirty years. Okay, okay, this essay is now turning a bit personal, but bear with me. I'm sure there will be others who can identify. Different reasons kept me away from the past reunions, ranging from, well, I just didn't want to GO, to not feeling successful enough, to my son having surgery and requiring me to be with him, instead of my fellow classmates. Feeble excuses? Maybe so (except the one involving my son) but nonetheless, I made a pact with myself to attend the 30th reunion come hell or high water. I signed up early and anxiously kept checking Classmates.com to see who else was going to attend. I was excited to see a guy I went to GRADE SCHOOL with was going to be there as well as others I was looking forward to seeing again. As the day approached however, excitement turned into full scale terror. I knew I didn't look THAT bad for my age, but what if there were voting and I won the prize for "most hit by the fugly stick"? What if NO ONE remembered me? What if I was forced to MINGLE (an activity completely against every fiber of my being) and therefore began sweating like a pig, and a fairly large one at that? Well, those of you who were lucky enough to attend our reunion know full well that only ONE of those fears actually came true. Too bad it was the latter one. Anyone who slip...Expand for more