High school Reunion: 20 years on

Earlier this year a group invitation popped up on my socials for a "Canterbury Boys' High School class of 2000 reunion". I remember being overseas for the previous 10 year student reunion and it looked that 10 years later I would also be in the same situation. High school reunions fall into the "nice to attend bucket", not something you would explicitly travel for, but definitely something worth attending if accessible. As I scrolled through the list of invitees, names popped up that looked familiar. Others names, not familiar to me, forced me to pause and think "who's that?". The class of 2000 was small, if memory serves me right there were around 60-70 students who went all the way to year 12 and not remembering these names was really no excuse.

Fast forward to December of this year and a collection of photos starts to populate my feed. An afternoon event held at an ex-student's food truck. I scroll through the photos, so many familiar faces as well as some that I don't recognise. The photos are all smiles. I see faces from my group, and the odd handful of friends that I still keep in touch with. There are also students who started and left our school through the years. Our old grade teacher, Ms Player also attended which looked to be a nice touch.

It's an odd feeling looking at these photos. Passing of time, these are the people that I shared some of my formative yers with, shared growth, laughter, adventure and was so competitive with, now they're settled back into suburban life. These are the events that break the flow get me in a strange odd mood. Birthdays, new years, it's a reminder that we are mortal and that time waits for nobody. I imagine the conversations that were exchanged. The proverbial answer to "What have you been up to since I last saw you?", or the more extreme "What have you been doing since 2000?". Which I guess is the equivalent to small chat, what I would have loved to be apart of all the memories and stories shared from those years at Canterbury Boys. The characters and the incidents that graced the halls of Canterbury Boys' High School from 1995 to 2000.