Last week, by sheer chance, I scored a great birthday present for my husband. Some family members and I were leaving the auditorium of our local high school (which just about all of our family graduated from, myself included)after watching my cousin in his senior play when I spotted a yearbook sitting on a table. I am one that just cannot pass up thumbing through a yearbook, even if it’s from 50 years ago or even if it’s not from a school I am familiar with. So naturally, my urge took over and I picked it up. It was from 1995, the year hubby graduated from high school.
I met my husband when he was a senior in high school. Back then we had absolutely NO romantic intentions towards one another, but we were great friends. He definitely didn’t care about things like school dances, school plays, or school yearbooks…all of the things I just thought were absolute MUST HAVES when I was in high school. He never purchased his senior yearbook and when I saw it just sitting there on the table the wheels in my mind started turning.
A sweet little girl that was in the play walked by, so I asked her if it would be possible to purchase it. She kind of laughed and said, “That? Oh, you can HAVE it. We’re trying to get rid of the old yearbooks because we don’t have any room to store them anymore.” Well, you would have thought she had told me I had just won the Powerball Millions because I gushed “thankyouthankyouthankyou” about 10 times and probably sounded like a spazzed out pre-teen. I was so excited and took it home and wrapped it up.
His birthday was Monday, and by then I had calmed down and realized that hubby probably wouldn’t be that impressed with my “gift”. I had a backup gift, of course, but I was more excited about the yearbook. He opened it and was a little confused at first, until I pointed out the year on the spine of the book.
He spent a good couple of hours looking through it, wondering what ever happened to so-and-so, laughing at how the students used to dress, remembering old teachers and friends. It was a trip down memory lane and he was thrilled to have his yearbook.
And we both agreed even the Powerball Millions would never be enough to make us want to go back and do high school all over again.
So cool!
I love that story! What a great wife you are; that sounds like an ideal birthday gift to me.
Also, I'm with you. I would not go back and be that age again for love or money. I feel that way most anytime I see a group of teenagers. I kind of want to go back and tell alll those teachers who told us, "These are the best years of your life!" that they were so, so wrong and did us an incredible disservice by telling us that those awkward, uncertain, sometimes awful years were the best. No way.
I often think that I would not want to do high school all over again. Now that I am even older I hestitate over college as well. I am so secure in my skin now (well, aside from wanting to lose a few pounds!) that I can't imagine wanting to go back to those tumultious years. Plus, the homework, the exams, being broke. Nope, I'm happy where I am at 33 🙂