Ten Years Already?!

I feel like the oldest person in the world. My ten year high school reunion is tomorrow!

Ten years! I almost can't believe it. Ten years is a long, long time and yet, it seems to have passed ridiculously fast. 

My senior year of high school, I was just beginning to discover the person I wanted to be. I knew then that I never wanted to be "normal" - normal was boring! Senior year was when I started finding confidence in myself and all the quirky little things that made me ME. I owned a little Razor Scooter and decorated it with a pink feather boa and a little bell, and scooted through the halls between classes. (I can't believe I had friends.)

Those of you who have known me for years may find it hard to believe that I wasn't always the outspoken, kinda crazy, never-take-no-for-an-answer person that I am now, but that part of me didn't truly surface until college. It wasn't until I was living on my own in another state, hundreds of miles away from home, that I really began to figure out who I was and who I ultimately wanted to become - someone involved, someone hands-on, someone who takes pride in knowing everyone and having everyone know me :) 

I can still remember so many things about who I was at age 17 in vivid detail. I laugh now at the things that used to stress me out - am I going to pass Chemistry!? What if I wear the same dress as someone else to prom?! I remember performing in the schoolwide Purim skit and the day my friends surprised me with "Jordan Day" on a random Tuesday, bringing cartons of ice cream in a little cooler to school so everyone could have some in my honor - it wasn't even my birthday! I remember where I sat at lunch and what I used to bring to eat - a baked potato. So weird that I remember that!

 I even remember the pants I was wearing in the picture above (I'm the one in the black shirt) - turquoise linen Juicy Couture pants! And to think that they were my favorite pants!

Also - you might not be able to tell in that picture.... but in high school I had BLOND HAIR!!! Look at this picture below. I was on Yearbook Committee and Prom Committee and people who were involved got to take a special "Contributors" picture. Can you find me? I'm the blonde in the middle with her head tilted to the side :) (Also you can't tell but I am wearing an Arizona sweatshirt, I had just decided to go there! BEAR DOWN.)

Writing this is making me excited for the reunion tomorrow. I think that a combination of living in the same city as I grew up in and Facebook have made it a little more anticlimactic than the way it's depicted in movies - I pretty much know what lots of people have been doing with their lives for the past ten years. On the other hand I know I've changed in ways that can't be seen or shown through a computer screen, so who knows what surprises I'm in for tomorrow night?

Either way, I know I'm lucky because I'll be surrounded by many, many friends. Not only am I still in touch with most of my high school pals, but I consider some of them to be my very best friends to this day - we see each other regularly and have grown up and changed alongside each other. Ten years is a long time, that's true, but I know that ten years is just the beginning of a lifetime of memories.

So wish me luck as I head back to high school for a night :) I'll be back next week with a recap, I'm sure!