Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

There’s really just too much to say about my high school reunion. It was overwhelming and wonderful in countless ways. As my friend Lesley kept saying, “We went to high school at a really special place.” I couldn’t agree with her more. Northside was part of the Atlanta Public Schools. It was the magnet for Performing Arts (yes, like “Fame”!), yet it was located in one of the richest parts of the city. We also had the only German and Russian classes in the school system so some kids came for that. As a result, we had kids from every part of the city. Some were in the performing arts program. Some weren’t. When kids got kicked out of the fancy private schools of Northwest Atlanta, they went to their home school, which was my school. We had extreme diversity in every way you can imagine. We had people from every part of the city, every income bracket, and racially, I recall that we were around 50/50 black/white. I’ve heard other figures, but for all intents and purposes, that’s about how it felt. At the time, there wasn’t much conflict between black and white, but there was division. The football team was mostly black, as were the cheerleaders. The Latin club and the soccer teams were more white. These are just examples, but it was true in many ways. The only exception to this was the School of Performing Arts. I think that because we were engaged in cooperative activities, we knew each other better there. Still, at both this reunion and the one I went to 10 years ago, we all talked about how that kind of diversity changed us. Pretty Kumbaya experiences, and I mean that in the best way.

One thing that was really special about this weekend was that I had a chance to spend a lot of time with both Lesley (my best friend in high school, even though she didn’t arrive until senior year) and Tristan (my high school boyfriend). While I have been in touch with Lesley since high school, Tristan reminded me that we hadn’t seen each other since early 1991! I couldn’t believe it had been that long. In retrospect, looking back at both my high school experience and at the weekend, I think that my relationships with these two people made me who I am today. First love is expected to do that, and Tristan and I were together for about three and a half years. We had some turbulence at the end of that relationship and got a chance to talk about some of those things. I wouldn’t have guessed I needed it, but now that it’s happened, I’m so glad it did.

There were some things I learned about Lesley that I never knew, even though we’ve always been close. She said that before she moved to Atlanta, she hardly ever went out. She didn’t have many friends because she was expected to babysit for her much younger brother, and she had an after-school job. For her, moving to Atlanta was a real blossoming period for her. That time was the same for me. She assumed I’d always been one to have lots of adventures. I assumed she always had. I think at the time there was some perception among others that we were being party girls, but knowing what was actually going on, that wasn’t true at all. I still got straight A’s that year. I probably smoked more cigarettes than before, but I wasn’t drinking or doing drugs or getting into any real trouble. I was just having a whole lot of fun. I also think people didn’t know how bright Lesley was. She was never as into academics as me (although I’m sure her grades were fine), but she is smart as a tack. Ask her anything. ANYTHING! If she doesn’t know, she will be an expert by the end of the day. I’m so glad she’s moving back to Atlanta, because that means I will see her more. Excellent news for me!

Of course it was wonderful to see Caitlin, Renee, Tatyana, Eric, Todd, and so many other great friends from back in the day, but I felt that I needed a bit of an ode to the two biggies: the two that made me me and with whom I’d somewhat fallen out of close touch. I will always be grateful to them both. There may be times I feel frustrated that I am single right now, but I never go a day where I don’t feel loved by my friends.

Soon, I’m going to write about my evening with Todd and Shannon… another complete treat that I wasn’t at all expecting.