Between my new job, driving an hour to and from work, remodeling a house and planning my wedding, I have had little time for much of anything else. Even finding time to write a blog has been a struggle. But there are times in a persons life where they have to stop, step back and take a minute to breath.

My moment to breath came this past Saturday when I attended the Fort Scott High School graduation ceremony.

I admit to being one of those kids that thought all I wanted to do was get far far away from everything I'd been raised with. With a few years behind me I've discovered some things aren't as bad as they might have seemed at the time. And without all that stupid baggage clogging up my brain, I actually found great enjoyment in the evening.

I found myself telling my fiancé' and his daughter stories of my high school and of my friends. And I was extremely proud to point out a friend I graduated with now teaching at the school. However I was a bit ashamed of myself at one moment when Tony made a comment as to why I never talked about some of the people I was pointing out to him. It's not the first time he's commented on the fact that he doesn't know half the people that use to be in my life. I'm beginning to think that he thinks that I was this obsolete wallflower that had no friends.

Which brings me to another thing on my mind. Why is it that after high school we lose track of people? People we could barely go a day without speaking to? People we wanted to hang around so much, that we'd sign up for classes we really didn't like, JUST to get to talk with them in whispered tones when the teacher wasn't paying attention. (Or, rather, was pretending not to pay attention. Sneaky teachers!)

Or maybe what's really sad is the fact that I know where some people are and yet I'm not in some form of contact with them, even if it's just a card at Christmas. (Yeah, I'm properly ashamed of myself now.)

Anyway, back to the subject of graduation.

It's interesting to see how some thing's change and some things stay the same.

Like when everyone was asked to not hoot, holler and air horn blow everyone deaf when his or her senior was announced. And how of course everyone did it anyway. (Guilty!) Or the way the female valedictorian wrote something serious that made us all think, and the guy wrote something to make us all laugh.

All things I remember from my own graduation. Things I'd forgotten about until I stood there, trying to find my friend and cousin in the rows of seniors.

Maybe high school wasn't as bad as I once believed. Maybe the teachers weren't as bad as I once thought they were. And maybe I'm not as big headed as I once was, to think I was too good for a small town like Fort Scott.