I’ve taken a little walk back in time over the past week. A few of my long-ago friends — you know, the ones that got me through my teenage years — and I gathered in Golden on Saturday to commemorate the fact that we will each celebrate a milestone birthday this year. We hugged, we laughed, and yes, we cried. We danced and were a little foolish.

And that raised a rather interesting question for me — do we revert to behaviours we associate with certain people? So that when we connect with those we shared teenage years with, we feel a sense of rejuvenation? Is that why we can “pick up right where we left off” with some people? We don’t worry about what’s happened since we last saw each other because it really doesn’t matter; we have history and we’ll create a little more without having to fill in the gaps with a bunch of baggage.

One of my friends asked if she should take her yearbooks with her because she wondered if she would remember to bring them back to our room.

My response was, “Surely, we can act like mature, responsible adults and look after a couple of books!” Then three of us looked at each other and giggled… we weren’t really sure that we would be able to pull it off. And honestly, I’m hoping she did because I had no sense of responsibility for those books whatsoever.

The maturity level at our function was happily raised when our Grade 8 math teacher walked in the door. What a treat it was to see Mrs. Johnson; she was such an inspiration to so many of us.

I found it amusing to learn that the Class of ‘82 also met in Golden last week. It took me most of the weekend to figure out the significance, but they were in Grade 1 at the doorstep of learning when we were in Grade 12 and looking out towards life with high hopes and great expectations.

Now it’s 2012; few of us are where we expected to be today but all  are full of plans for tomorrow.