Moving Forward While Stepping Back into My High School Reunion

Earlier this month, I attended my 50^th + 1 high school reunion (canceled last year due to COVID-19). School reunions can be traumatic events, enough so that many people don’t even consider attending. Reasons are numerous, but a common one is that a person’s school experiences weren’t pleasant so he has no interest in reliving them.

Reunions definitely involve reliving the past. We recall and laugh about experiences shared decades ago. We peruse ancient photos back to grade school days and catch up on the past 10, 20, or 50 years. And we solemnly remember those classmates we have lost. Reliving the past can fill in memory gaps and remind us of the blessings God lavished on us in our youth.

Reliving the past is not the same as living in the past where we wish we could dwell back there forever, or the other extreme, we wish it had never happened. Both of those situations can keep us from moving forward. But forward is the direction God wants us headed.

God has new places to take us and new things for us to do, but we can’t see them if we are stuck on what used to be. The Lord made this clear to the Israelites when he told them, “¹⁸Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19a).

I have found that returning to the past via reunions is a great way to move forward. They aren’t easy for me. I have missed several. But because they aren’t easy, there is opportunity for growth. And growth is forward movement.

As an introvert in a class of over 500 graduates, a definite sense of dread shows up before each gathering. The great majority of classmates are on my “Classmates I Don’t Know” list as opposed to the shorter one, “Classmates I Know.” And the largest subcategory of the latter is “I Know You . . . but not really.” In recent years, though, my desire to reconnect with friends has proven stronger than my fears of knowing relatively few people . . . or of not being remembered.

God’s direction is an indispensable factor in my reunion attendance. Though it may feel as if he is taking me back to the past, I am convinced he is always leading me forward. I have become better acquainted with classmates I didn’t know well, and I’ve had wonderful conversations with some I didn’t know at all. I’ve made new memories to store up for gatherings to come. And I’ve rekindled old friendships with promising plans for future get-togethers. All forward movement in relationships.

God has also used the reunion setting to move me forward in personal growth. The out-of-control waves of panic prior to the events have decreased through the years to manageable twinges as I’ve chosen to be intentional about why I’m there. Yes, I want to see old friends, but I also want to be where God wants me to be, even if I don’t know his reasons.

God often chooses to take us out of our comfort zones. At a small afternoon gathering apart from the main reunion activities one year, we all shared major life events since graduation. I was touched by the stories of my classmates’ journeys and how God was working in their lives. When I returned home, I clearly felt God directing me to write notes to several of those classmates. Now, every one of them happened to be on my “I Know You . . . but not really” list, so I was definitely putting my introverted self out there. I wrote and sent the heartfelt notes. I didn’t get any replies, but I didn’t expect any. Nor is that the reason I wrote the notes. I was simply obeying, and whatever happened on the other end was entirely in God’s hands.

I get so excited when God stretches me like that. (Truth be told, the excitement doesn’t come until after the stretching, though.) Reunions have so much potential for stretching me. And when I do take that step and allow the growth, God always supplements it with special blessings.

The small gathering sandwiched between the two main events this year was an open house at Benner Field House, the venue for our high school basketball games. I nearly didn’t go. Though my husband attended the evening events with me, he couldn’t make this one so I would have to go by myself. I did a lot of wavering before finally choosing to go.

I wanted to see this historic building again. Its design is unique. When you walk in the front doors, you have to descend steps to get to the floor. We lovingly referred to it as “the snake pit.” The building was greatly damaged in the Xenia tornado of 1974, the same storm that demolished my beloved high school next door, but it was repairable. More recently, it was closed for several years for renovations to make it safe and usable again, and it reopened in 2019. Though more restoration is yet to come, it looked fresh and sparkling. It was great to see it again.

However, the greater reward for submitting to God’s stretching was the people encounters. If I hadn’t gone that morning, I wouldn’t have seen a friend who didn’t attend the evening events, or have had a wonderful conversation with a classmate I hadn’t talked to since high school, or have had the privilege of talking with a grade school friend’s mother who remembered me after half a century.

New traditions can grow from going back. In high school, the senior choir ended every concert with a four-part arrangement of “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.” A couple reunions ago, someone noticed all four parts were represented in one of our gatherings. For the fun of it, she asked the former choir members to take their positions and she directed them. Not being in the choir, I was a happy audience member. To me it sounded as though they had rehearsed the day before! Now, whatever choir members are present at our reunions, they treat us to this beautiful hymn, which they did again at our Saturday night banquet this year.

With my 50^th + 1 reunion in the past, I was back home in my church Sunday morning, still feeling the warmth of old and new friendships and the satisfaction of so many positive elements of the weekend. My mind and heart were bursting with the goodness of God.

The songs our worship team prepares are not announced, so I was blown away when they began singing “God, You’re So Good.” Besides it being my favorite version, it seemed God was saying, “Here, see if this helps you express what you’re feeling for me.” Indeed, it did!

And then an even bigger surprise. The final song, after the sermon, was one we rarely sing. I can’t even remember the last time we did. So imagine my astonishment when the words to “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” appeared on the screen! God absolutely arranged that to put the bow on my weekend.

From school days all the way into retirement years, my life has been wrapped up neatly and lovingly in the blessing and keeping of the Lord.  His face has shined on me through every season, even when I may not have been aware of it, and will continue to do so. Stepping back to revisit the past and reconnect with classmates has been an experience in moving forward—and a beautiful blessing.