Layering


Life is funny. Just when you think you have it all figured out along comes an event that makes it all go *ping* and leaves you scratching your head in confusion. Such an event for me recently, was a school reunion.
Now I have heard of people avoiding these events but for me, I love them, It brings up all sort sof pop-psychology type questions and this recent event was even more unusual.

Our high school was a new one in our town, and this meant that pupil numbers was initially quite low, until at last we had a full compliment of standards from Standard 6 to Matrics (or Standard 10). I was in the third year of matrics and we were only a small cluster of pupils, around 80 I think. We had had a 10 year reunion and it was my job to round everyone up and I had a good idea of what everyone was up to and what they looked like. This was all fine then and throughout the years we heard bits and pieces about school mates, and then the social network phenomenon exploded and suddenly the small world of our small townsfolk expanded. Past pupils have spilled out into the big globe and show up from all sorts of angles on our blue planet.

This recent reunion was not confined to a specific school year, but rather the first decade. Our school's pupils were all invited to show up and join in the fun.This is where my confusion started as there were many familiar faces, but names escaped me as the 'youngsters' turned up, making me stretch into my very thin memory banks. This is where I experienced the *ping* feeling. Layers of neatly arranged memories all individually wrapped for what was supposed to be eternity now had an arrow darting right through the middle of them. The aftershock meant that my brain scrambled for things, anything to try and plant the new faces into the alloted slots all without the help of 'Facebook' and the information gleaned there! Names sounded familiar, but the visual images didn't correspond to what data I had collected and I felt almost rude not recognising people who obviously had some recollection of me!

In high school, us 'seniors' didn't really pay much close attention to the younger ones unless there were 'qualifying' characteristics, but on this night, I wished I had! My anxiety rose as my brainfry wasn't really clearing and when I chatted to my one friend, she admitted she was feeling nervous too. This calmed me a little when I realised that I wasn't the only one who was feeling out of sorts! I was shocked to see my past schoolgirl crushes and their dramatic changes throughout the past 28 years. I didn't think that I had changed that much, or have I?

Eventually I relaxed and watched with my 'pop-psychology' eyes, and really began to enjoy the confusion, reminiscing and laughter. That night I am sure there was closer examination of laughter lines and waistbands, but the most surprising thing for me was my own *ping*. Slowly the realisation dawned on me that the 'boys' were the most changed, as I remembered them as boys and now they are men. When I had figured that out, I could slowly start to pack up the layers of memory banks once more, this time leaving some space in between the layers, understanding that life has a lovely way of surprising me once more!



Viva my own Bermuda triangle!