Reaction from Michael Pollmann to a 4-day weekend in Colorado with 8 old high school friends from Iowa, after a separation of 24 years...
As I look back on the last 4 days I can't help but think of Family, and I use capital "F" because this is a group that is every bit as important to me as my own blood family. We're not friends, we're Family. How else can you explain, as many of us said multiple times, the feeling of "...picking up where we left off" even though, for some of us, there were over 2 decades of being apart? How do you explain being in a room, full of conversation, people recounting trials that they've gone through, are going through, and without hesitation thinking to yourself "just say the word, i'm ready to drop everything and help out in any way I can if that's what's needed"? (I think Belzer mentioned going so far as to kill, maybe jokingly, but I have to admit that I don't think that's far from the truth). The best way I can explain it is that it sounds EXACTLY like a Family to me.
One thing I keep thinking about, with a bit of awe, is that if you were to ask me back in '92, "Hey, Pollmann, we're going to get together in 24 years. You in?" I would have said "You better F'in believe it!" That doesn't surprise me. What surprises me is who would have been included in that group back when the invitation was extended, that fine May day in 1992. I honestly don't think half this group would've been included in my list at that time. That is in no way reflective of how I felt about you all at that time, I think it's more of a testament to the unbelievable people that came out of AHS and Ames, Iowa. And I don't mean just our class, but all the classes we were fortunate enough to cross paths with. If you want proof, just take a look at FB over the last few days and look at all the people that have commented on the photos that have been posted. Those are good people, GREAT people, and on some levels, it's better than paging through the AHS yearbook. How lucky are we to have grown up in Ames? How lucky is it that most, if not all of us, spent K-12 in Ames (which, in talking to friends not from Ames, it does not seem very common to have spent your entire elementary and secondary education in one place)? Better than winning the lottery, if you ask me.
I have friends from later walks of life that I would also include in the Family, one of which I was fortunate enough to be able to meet for lunch on Sunday (he is part of what Heidi and I would call our KC Family). I have a similar group that was formed in college, which I'm sure many of us have, and their might be one more if I think about it. I don't know that these "later" groups would exist today without that first group from Ames, and I'm thankful for that. I'm sure if you all think about it you'll find these Families in your life. Some of them may pop into your head immediately and some you might have to think about. And then there are those that you may have forgotten about until you gather with a small sample of them over 4 days of bluebird skies, shared meals, shared recreation, the occasional bout of non-stop, 15 minute laughter, and good music (Double T's). I would argue that this last one, the one that stands for such an odd, scary and wonderful blip on our screens is the most powerful. This is the one that will keep coming back, in the worst of times and the best of times, to ground us and remind us who we are. This is that hand on the shoulder.
So maybe some of you may not have been on my 18-year-old self's list of "We're Getting the Band Back Together" reunion. So what? I may not have been on your list either, and maybe I wasn't on your 42-yr-old self's list either. I was giddy when Belzer and Villwock floated this invite back in late 2015. Because, although I may have been nervous about seeing this group after so long, especially those I wasn't necessarily close with in high school, I was POSITIVE that we would "pick up where we left off".
I look forward to this happening again, and soon, and my hope is that this movement that Belzer has started, with his podcasts and this reunion will get the rest of our class thinking along the same lines and the reunions will happen with others. Maybe we'll even overlap. Either way, Belzer, I hope you realize the positive effect one simple question has had on the lives of at least 7 others.
"Tell me what high school was like for you?"
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