Blasts from the Past

I am usually not one to sign up for these networking sites. There are a bevy of them: MySpace (although we do have an L & D space), LinkedIn and others. But at the urging of my brother, who, living in the bay area and in the creative technical industry, is the king networker, I decided to sign up for Facebook recently. And then, omg, the flood gates opened. I started hearing from people I haven't talked to in 20 years! Some even longer. One friend, Katie, who left my grade school when we were 10, is now living in London. Another, Jennie, went on to play collegiate golf after we lost touch in Junior High. The discoveries go on and on.

Something important to know about me is that keeping in touch with old friends from the past isn't new. In fact, some of my nearest and dearest--who I still talk to regularly--I met in kindergarten. Next month, I'm headed to Arizona (where I was raised) to attend the "Posse Reunion." What is the "Posse," you ask. Well, it was a self-proclaimed group senior chicks from my high school who'se shit didn't stink (or so we thought). I was one of the founding members. Admittedly, we were probably some of the girls many of you hated in high school. And some of us (not me, of course) may have deserved the disdain. Being the budding lesbian with a big heart I was--cheerleading and student council aside--I had friends in every circle: The theater peeps, the supersmart advanced placement science kids, even the wallflowers who no one really knew. That all said, I'm DYING to see the posse! While there were about 12 of us back in the day (we even had t-shirts made and wore them with pride), the group has dwindled a bit. I think there are only 8 or 9 partaking in the August shenanigans. But still, as I get older and meet more people, I realize how rare what we share is. We're all different, too (I'm token lezbot and the only one without kids) and those differences have only made us richer through the years.

So, my point is--before bouncing off on my posse tangent--is this: put yourself out there on Facebook and see who comes knocking on your door. Like me, you might not only reconnect with your past, but you might also be pleasantly surprised.

* the pic below is of the Posse on our senior trip to San Diego.