Walking down memory lane

Recently, my high school celebrated its 80th anniversary. They had a big to-do at the school and a couple of my girlfriends and I attended.

They had done some renovations and it was interesting to see the changes. Isn't it funny how some senses are so prominent? A couple of the places had the exact same smell and once it hit my nose, I was transported back to being a gangly 17 year old. A few places looked almost exactly as it did before and as I gazed upon the sight, I could see it as it looked over 20 years ago filled with students and chaos. As we walked through the gym and my shoes clicked on the floor, I could hear the squeak of shoes and the thud of basketballs as I envisioned how it was when I attended sporting events.

I saw one of my teachers there and was surprised to see how little he had changed. Certainly, he was older and had a few more wrinkles, but overall he didn't look much different. I, obviously, had changed as he did not recognize me. He finally remembered me as I reminded him I had attended BYU (funny how being a Mormon makes me peculiar!).

The reunion committee (there is a reunion committee for the entire school and is responsible for the major school reunions, not class reunions) had prepared tables to represent the classes from each year. As I looked at the pictures and memorabilia from my class, I saw a couple of pictures of me and my name mentioned in some of the programs.

As I contemplated my years at high school, I was struck by a thought. I no longer felt such an overwhelming loyalty to my high school as I do to BYU. I no longer consider myself a purple and white girl, but I bleed blue and white. My girlfriends appeared to have a different viewpoint. They were interested in every detail of the school and reminiscent about so many things. I kept comparing my feelings to the feelings I had upon visiting BYU last year for the first time in over10 years. My thoughts and feelings were more pronounced and passionate. I was interested by the changes and memories of my high school, but I was fascinated and invested in the changes and memories of BYU.

We sang our school fight song and I was surprised at how much I remembered of the words. But singing, "We're loyal to you Washington," seemed disloyal to me as I kept getting the BYU fight song words confused with this song.

I'm glad I went. I would go again. But I am thrilled to be going to BYU to attend Education Week again in 2009. That feels like coming home to me.