Hi, Everyone!
I can see Each of you, fresh in my mind - an amalgamation of the "you" from high school, along with a bit of inevitable aging.
Sherry just dropped me an e-mail asking me to find my 1982 yearbook and look up someone's senior quote for her... And, I've just spent a few minutes just browsing through it. "Looking at photos, chuckling at how on-point some of our senior quotes were, and reading the handwritten notes that many of you wrote there. I'm sure I'd be completely embarrassed at some of the things I wrote in your books. It was probably something superficial, and not nearly deep enough to have any meaning to you all these years later. Your notes, on the other hand, are so very generous, honest, and challenging.
Several of your notes mentioned what a hard year we had had - I don't remember that at All! Do You?! Must be my Selective Memory. I'm glad! The clearest memories I have are of terrific times - in the journalism room with copy grids and Pritt glue, in the chemistry lab where someone was invariably shooting HCI across the room with a syringe (some of those people actually work with syringes now - help us all), on the soccer field, beside the basketball court, the smell of the mats in the upper gym, gathering on the plaza to do homework or just gab (that's where I can best picture myself talking with Rosella or Steve), memories from choir rehearsals, the walk from lockers to home on Missionary Row and back - and here would come Merja, walking like she was on her way to a fire, and we'd smile and say Hi - I remember Kwokie's wrist watch with the loose gemstones rolling around inside, and her bouncy walk - and so many great teachers... didn't we have truly great teachers?
Who from our class do you keep up with nowadays? I hope there are several people that you send e-mails back and forth with, or text msg. Maybe you're even fortunate enough to maintain phone contact with someone. I've enjoyed the conversations I've had with some of you - especially Merja and Sherry, here and there with Debbie, and a couple of phone conversations with Paul who said, "Yes, you do have a southern accent." And Naomi, Beth and Betsy came to my house in Nashville once, where Beth fixed lunch for all of us! I wish I could list more - i need to make more conversations happen.
We've moved this year - 10 hours to the east Nashville. My husband, Kevin, was recruited to work for a company here in Greenville, NC - we're just 1.5 hours from the beach! Our younger son, Garrett, has adjusted to the move brilliantly - he's a high school sophomore, and about 6/4". Jonathan (6/4" or 5") is leaving the University of Tennessee in his second year, in order to find full-time work in Knoxville. Astronomy is such a diverse field; he needs some time to determine what kind of degree will serve him best. So, my Baby is setting up his own household - a milestone. Actually, Jonathan's been a separate tax household from us for some time, and has paid his own way through school thus far (as Garrett will also in two more years).
My parents (Wendell & Laquita Powers) are still in Huntsville, AL. Monica & Kim and Melissa & David all live in Minneapolis area, and Stephanie has just returned for a stateside sabbatical from her work in Uganda.
'Can't wait to read your letters!'
Love to all,
Angela |
