Pomp or Circumstance?

I’ve almost entirely stopped looking at my favorite local page The Daily Page Forum over the last few months. Activity has gone down in general, especially in the wake of Obama winning the presidency. I still check in a couple of times a week, mostly to hear local folks weigh in on events in Madison. But I feel like the people who posted intelligent things are not doing it as often and much of what gets discussed does not interest me.

Plus I’ve been sucked into Facebook. And the connections keep on coming, from former workmates to old friends and exes. I’ve even had a couple of chats with some folks I used to spend a lot of time talking to face to face. I joined a group for the bar that I used to hang out at in Ames where I met many of the musicians I still play with. I joined a freakin’ group for the dorm floor I lived on as a Freshman and Sophomore. These are strange digital times indeed.

The oddest part so far is the joining up with a page for my high school graduating class. My 20th is coming up in 2009 and I’m mulling over the idea of attending. I missed the 10th since I was quite poor and didn’t have a car and wasn’t sure I wanted to face all of those people quite yet. But this time around my life is a bit more together and I’m a bit more piqued. A few of my classmate have friended me on Facebook. While I don’t have any problem being their virtual friend, the people who picked me out were not really people I knew all that well in high school. At least one is someone I did not recognize, even after getting the yearbook out. I did not friend anyone out of the 100 or so folks who have acknowledged the page. I haven’t talked to or seen at least 75% of them since the last day/week/month of school. Maybe another 10% I saw since they went the same college as I did. I think the last person I graduated with that I actually talked to face to face was Rob Harkin, who I saw the last week I lived in Ames. That was 12 years ago.

Deanna wants to go to my reunion–we’re the same age so hers will be in ’09 as well, though her class was 40 some people and mine was over 300. I’m worried about not remembering who anyone is, especially people who I didn’t know in the first place. My brother went to his back in ’07 and had a blast. Part of me is really looking forward to seeing old acquaintances but part of me would also like to remember everyone as they once were. Though if I don’t show up, I suppose folks will always think of me as that intensely shy skinny kid with braces who used to burst into tears at least once a week.