Your 10-year highschool reunion – It's the last real coming of age milestone in your life. Love it or hate it, if you've been ducking and diving the 'grown-up' label since matriculating, there's no hiding from it at the reunion. The girls you used to ride home on the school bus with have children, the girl who was always in the principles office for smoking or skipping gym class is the Director of her own business and married to a conservative blonde/blue-eyed IT geek, and the girl who was voted least likely to ever settle down was the first to get hitched and is so broody she makes Carol Brady look un-maternal. There is no escaping it – the schoolgirl is now a grown up.
The above paragraph may seem a little too specific to be about making a general point. And it is. You see, I had the privilege of attending my 10-year reunion on Saturday. I say this without a hint of sarcasm. I really mean it – I felt privileged. Not only because my mom worked her cute 5 foot nothing butt off to send my sister and I to such a great school, but because I found myself in the company of some seriously dynamic women – as beautiful as they were funny, as stylish as they were smart and as charming as they are accomplished. These are women who have either done what they always said they would or done far more than was ever expected of them... and they've kept their dry humour and taste for a little glass of champagne before noon.
Ten years tends to iron out the kinks... and at the risk of sounding cheesy – the diamonds in the rough are now flawless marquis cut stones with just the hint of colour needed to keep them interesting.
40 of us turned up for the chapel service at 9am and giggled as certain memories bubbled up to the surface as we were taken on 'heritage walks' around the school. Groups of old friends huddled at the bottom of the lawns that were always out of bounds to have a sneaky ciggie – chatting about how silly it was to be ten years older and still scared of being 'caught' by one of the teachers. The current St.Andreans (Grade 11 and 12 girls) scored brownie points as they told us how great it was to see that even Old Girls had style – "All of you are wearing such cure shoes!" –and their eyes widened as we told them some stories about the school they'd never heard before.
In true St.Andrews style it was all cucumber sandwiches and milk tart, followed by a seated lunch in a venue that was all dressed up to resemble more of a wedding reception venue than a school hall. Around one of the tables were two CAs, a physio, a Director, an attorney and a stay-at-home-mom. At another was a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, a graphic designer and an architect. This was a room that had once been full of potential and now, a decade later, was full of realised dreams. Now if that's not an ad for a good education I don't know what is.
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