It may very well have frozen over...

I hate eating my own words. No matter how you season them, they never taste good. See, in the past whenever anyone would mention going to a high school reunion, I came back with "When pigs fly", or "over my dead body" or some other cliche' phrase. You might gather from this that high school was not an altogether enjoyable experience for me.
Don't get me wrong, there were parts of it I loved. Like playing on the tennis team, and running cross country (even though I was slow!), and Mrs. Rice's English classes. And even getting my heart broken, every girl needs to experience that in high school! And it's not like I was beaten up in the girls room or stuffed in my locker. There are much more subtle ways to be shown you aren't quite up to par. Some people may think the most deadly animal is something like the Alaskan grizzly, or Africa's Black Mamba snake. I beg to differ. That distinction belongs to the American Teenage Female.
So no one was more surprised than me when I went to my high school reunion today. Or to clarify, the picnic preceding it. And it was fun getting to see the people who came, and remember the one's who didn't. It's funny, even though we weren't all there, you could still find almost every stereotype. The class clown, the really sweet girl, the really smart guy, the wild child, the girl who (for reasons known only to her) is just a little bit snobby.
Ten years didn't seem to change us all that much. But it did give me a new perspective on the trial that was my high school experience: I wouldn't change a thing. Oh, if you asked me that question in the middle of my sophomore year, I'd have said "Heck yes, get me out of this!" But one thing I've learned in my life (going to wax poetic here for a moment, sorry!) is that everything happens for a reason- get this- especially the hard things. And because of high school, I learned some very valuable lessons, lessons I can pass on to my daughter. Lessons that maybe some people didn't ever learn, and never will.
Like how everyone should be treated with respect. (I was guilty of breaking that one a lot myself.) Like how it doesn't matter what you are wearing on the outside, it's how you feel about yourself on the inside (That one took me a long time). Like your self esteem doesn't come from who you sit beside in World History, it comes from inside and once you find it, no one can take it away.
And most importantly, that friendship isn't a temporary contract that you keep as long as it's convenient for you. It's a commitment that you make, even when you discover that person's imperfections. Especially then.
Because if you do, they'll always be there for you. They're the ones that keep your kid from falling in the creek at the class reunion picnic.
I love you, Jess.