MY FELLOW CLASSMATES......

I was thinking today as I attended my daughter’s middle school graduation. I looked out at all of her classmates…….those other kids who were just as important to their parents and families as my daughter was to me (and mine). I know a few of them, but she is familiar with all of them. I remember the bond I felt with my classmates. To this very day there is a special connection I have with those who traveled that seminal journey with me….we shared those awkward years, the years when we first set off from family security and headed out to be with a group of kids and a teacher…we saw them, and shared with them…everyday. We saw them as they went through the same challenges and expectations that were placed on us. We were all in that boat together…year, after year. We saw them grow up…and change, and they saw us, as we grew up, and changed….it’s powerful..and poignant.

When they are out there as the ”graduating class” they are all one....soon enough they will all take different pathways, and follow different stars...but today...they can look over at one another and say that, ”we did it, together”.

Even if, over the years, we didn’t exchange more than a few words with some of these fellow classmates they still were our fellow classmates, year after year.....until that one day when we graduate and say goodbye to most of those relationships. I don’t even remember saying “goodbye” to those kids who I knew I would probably rarely see again--- the ones who weren’t in my circle of friends.

When I think of anyone I attended grade school with….I get a warm feeling….I think, “we went through these years, the “wonder” years….together”….that has to count as something special…and it surely does.

For many it is time to think about where we are going.....but we will never forget where we have been, nor those who were there with us on that journey, when we were much smaller than we are today.

“see that girl over there? We went to school together”.