Forty years is a long time.

It's been 40 years since my high school graduation. Even longer since I lived through those years with young people I thought I knew. Maybe I didn't know them so well, but we were close all the same. As teens in those days we shared more, laughed more, dreamed more and expected more from our futures.

I don't think it's the same for many teens today. It's more about living for the moment, and the future seems more uncertain.

It seemed to me that the world of my high school campus was a sort of magical place - a think tank of ideas and exploration. We said what was on our minds, we thought we could accomplish anything and never once dreamed how hard life could be. Some of us knew what we wanted to be when we grew up and some of us didn't. But that didn't seem to matter because we had each other and we knew everything would just work out somehow.

Some of the best kinds of friendships are lived in high school. Some probably thougtht they would last forever. I did. Now I think about seeing all my friends and acquaintances again and I am excited to see how and where they impacted their world - my world. And I can only hope that somehow, somewhere I made a difference for theirs, even if only in a "cosmic" sort of way.

Forty years is a long time. Yet it went by in the blink of an eye. Have I changed? Yes. Have my schoolmates changed? Not in my mind. I only know them as they were. Did we think time would stand still for us? Maybe. And maybe when we meet again, it will seem that way. 

Did we become all we were meant to be? I know I'm still working on that.

Did we lose sight of our dreams? I'm still working on that too.

If only we lived in a world of do-overs and mulligans. Would we have a different story to tell when we meet again in June 2012? In reality, all we have is second chances...and this summer will be our second, third or fourth chance to unite and be the dynamic group of people we always knew we were. Won't that be groovy?

Here's to the class of 1972. I'll see you soon.

God bless.