The 20-Year Reunion

I generally try to keep non-professional stuff to a minimum over here, but this crosses over somewhat. So I attended my 20-Year High School Reunion this past weekend (for the record, Oliver Wendell Holmes High School in San Antonio). I didn't want to go, but my longtime friend Tom Kustelski talked me into it. Very surreal, but it was great to hang out with him and his wife Ann, and I'm glad Traci and I were there. Looking back twenty years, I definitely wasn't amongst the most popular folks in high school, and I definitely wasn't amongst the sexiest. My friends tended to be the geeks and the nerds and I suspect I got labeled the same, for better or worse. Finishing with the 3rd best GPA in a class of 600 probably didn't help. They were good years, but I don't feel too many Uncle Rico moments where I wax nostalgically about them. So back to the reunion, about 200-250 people showed up, and it was good to hear how many folks went on to success. Kevin Jackson has a PHD and is proffing at the University of Illinois; more folks than I can count have large, prosperous families; and of course, my buddy Tom is doing well enough that he's already thinking about retiring to Colorado in a few years. Lawyers, doctors, designers, CEOs....you name it...the whole gamut. So toward the end of the evening, they announced the "Class Favorites," including "Most Successful." When they got to that one....whoda thunk it....but they called my name and I had to walk up to the stage, more than a bit stunned. The tradeoff is I had to wear a sash that said "Most Successful" and I was bestowed with a lovely bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill wine. Too funny. As my wife wisely said that night, "Success is measured a lot of different ways." I wish I would've known that twenty years ago.