My 10 Year Reunion will be Tubs o’ Fun
Have you wondered what ever happened to that failure from high school? My dad said he was a complete “slacker” during his adolescent years. But now he owns a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical factory. With 4+ years of university, even you can avoid being a loser!
I was reunited with an old high school friend in Tokyo last weekend. I hadn’t seen nor communicated much with Cherie since graduating at the notorious Dangerous Mind’s school… aka Carlmont High School. No joke, this movie was actually based on my school… but that’s a totally different story. Anyway, before seeing my long lost friend, I began to reflect on my times in high school… High School – the age of teenage angst and confusion. High School - the realization that life isn’t the Cinderella story we hoped it would be. HIGH SCHOOL - the all encompassing dramatic bullshit one gets caught up in… feeling stifled, suffocated, jaded. I loved it. So much I could fist myself.
As the weekend approached, I looked forward to escaping from the middle of butt-fuck nowhere to the largest city in Japan. Yet, my thoughts toward seeing Cherie was one of excitement… but nervous excitement… You know, the kind that gives you mild diarrhea.
Looking back, we were never really all that close with each other. Sure, we shared moments such as the all important student government and the occasional high school party. I think the only thing that we could pinpoint as a ”breaking through” moment was one of those cheezy team-building activities we were involved with. We actually cried together… It almost needed a Full House soundtrack in the background. In other words, we’ve only known each other during a time when we were so unsure of ourselves… making mistakes whilst everyone being completely aware of our immature decisions. Although I was aware that four years of university comes with challenges, maturity, and growth, my idea of Cherie remained frozen in time as the extremely cute 3/4 Japanese gal who cried when I was going to submit a bad picture of her in the yearbook.
Some things never change… or do they? I met her and her friends at Starbucks (out of all places) in Shinagawa station. She looked exactly the same… still that extremely cute, playful, bubbly girl that I knew in high school. We hugged, filled with nervous tension and uneasy eye-contact, and began our conversation about old high school friends and the gossip that came along with it. ”‘So and so’ is now married… but in a way, everyone is sorta still the same,” Cherie said, slightly rolling her eyes. I agreed in a way… maybe she was still the same girl who would cry if I posted an ugly photo of her on the internet (not that it’s really possible, Cherie 
… I’m just being facetious 
).
Every winter for the past four years I would get together with a bunch of old high school friends and do a pot luck thingamadilly. But after some time, I began to think, “Dude, this guy is a bigger shmuck than he was last year. And this crazy ho? She’s a bigger ho now than she ever was. Man, I’m so fucking glad I’m no longer in
high school.”
Five tequila shots can totally change one’s perspective. After downing some alcohol at a club called “Pure” located in Shibuya, Cherie and I were completely free and uninhibited - dancing dirrrty amidst the sea of awkward stepping Japanese (they just stand there). Our all encompassing high school world suddenly exploded into the mind-boggling universe. There was something different between the two of us… Maybe it was seeing each other outside of our hometown context, but once we moved on from our high school convo, we talked about things that mattered…. We were more at ease… we were more ourselves.
Perhaps we are still ultimately the same immature, hormonal teenagers of yesteryear with a slight weight fluctuation and a different hairstyle… but for the better, we have grown up, have had life experiences, and blossomed into the doe-eyed young adults we are today. Although we will never truly understand each other’s personal journey the years during or after college, things ultimately change… most of the time, for the better. As Cherie said in her post, “when I think about high school, i have mixed feelings. besides a few really good friends and a lot of hilarious memories, i walked away with the knowledge of exactly what kind of person i did NOT want to be, or be around.”
I like Cherie… not that I didn’t like her before. I just like her more.
It seems as if we tend to view things/situations/people where we left off. But for better or for worse, people change. Actually, I don’t really like the word “change.” Although we sometimes unknowingly hold onto an image or an idea of someone in our past, people tend to grow from the last time you saw them. It’s just even better when two long lost friends end up growing in the same direction… And who knows, maybe that loser in high school with the bad acne and the choking BO will have grown into a multi-millionaire Rico Suave. Hmm… on the second thought, probably not. But one can always hope and wonder, “What ever happened to…?”
Cherie… thanks for making me feel like “home” in a crazy little place we call “Japan” 
.
OR… would you rather be a misunderstood genius who is constantly tortured by the frivolity of life, resulting in awkward social situations and emotional detachment to all but two other equally pretentious, yet highly un satiated individuals? This, of course, would include a Pulitzer/Nobel prize and the prestige of ultimately making a positive impact on modern society. Unfortunately, your impact will never be truly recognized until after your death… and your only image of happiness is that of a mere childhood memory… looped over in black and white, artsy framing, and speckled with reverberating laughter.
What is love… baby don’t hurt me. 
