Mini Reunion

So I had dinner this evening with my Primary One class of 1979! Oh man. I really should find a less aging way of phrasing that.

Actually it was even better than it sounds. Our PRIMARY ONE FORM TEACHER was there. Totally awesome! I don't think she remembered us particularly well, and probably me not at all. I was not noisy or quiet or hardworking or lazy. Just somewhere in the middle, just another face in a crowd of very small mostly Chinese faces. Most of my Malay and Indian classmates were grouped together in another class so that they could study Malay as a second language.

Only 11 out of 42 of us were there. But definitely enough to make a lot of noise (mostly giggling). A friend of mine said he would not go for such a gathering as he thought no one would really have much to say to each other, other than what are you doing now. But I disagree by experience. I did have a bunch of things to say to everyone else. We didn't really get down to the what are you doing now bits as there was so much past, so much context, to catch up on.

Remember that scene in Charlotte's Web when the baby spiders all flew away, scattered by the four winds, to find their destinies elsewhere? Tonight it felt like 11 baby spiders came back to catch up over dinner. And in a strange and totally unexpected way, I left feeling more complete and at peace. Strange because all we really did was catch up on a series of shared memories and experiences. But I feel grounded because there are at least 11 people out there with the same memories that I have, even if they may mean nothing to the casual listener. It makes the memories more solid, more real, even with the horrifyingly large number of years that have passed.

Perhaps it is the realisation that there were possibly 10 different and alternative careers and lifestyles that I could have tried, instead of my present ones. After all, none of us have similar jobs, some of us never married, some of us never had kids. Anyway. Whatever. Nostalgia makes me ramble.