With our own domain (mhs80.com and .net) we should be able to create a simple yet effective tool to keep our class informed, updated and connected. Please feel free to give us your input as to what types of features you would like to see available going forward.
I will take on the administrator/ webmaster role for the site unless one of you does this sort of thing for a living and can make it pretty AND functional; or would like to take it on or help for whatever reason.
Although many of us have connected on
FaceBook,
Classmates,
Reunion and
LinkedIn; this particular website offers some attractive advantages. This website is built on a blogger platform and therefore all posts are available to anyone looking for information about our reunion with out having to 'join' another social network. One can simply find information without giving out any. However we do encourage you to do two things: #1. Post and Comment - this will let the rest of us know that you are here and that you are interested in our reunion and reconnecting with our class. #2 Subcribe - please consider subscribing to this blog so that each time information is put out, it gets e-mailed to you rather than counting on coming back and checking the site manually. We all have busy lives and distractions that keep can keep us from our best intentions. Make it easy - subscribe.
In addition to the requests above, I would like to personally invite you all to share. Share your thoughts about the reunion, share your memories about you and your days at Meridan, even the less than pleasant memories. I have come to discover that even 30 years later, some of us still harbor resentments and suffer anxiety about the 'kids' we went to high school with. I have also found how easily (now that we are, ugh!, ADULTS) those old wounds are quickly and finally healed by sharing, disclosing and confessing them. Sometimes a small apology is all that is needed but most times the best medicine is laughter! You know that as a 47 year old man or woman you would not likely hold a grudge against a 16 or 17 year old kid (unless they were your own!).
We are not, none of us, the same person we were 30 years ago; and yet... we are. We all wanted and still want to be accepted, loved and cherished by our family, our friends and ...our peers. Here is a secret that I hope we have all learned since graduation: Give what you yearn to receive.
This class reunion is the only 'Thirty Year' reunion that you will ever have the opporunity to be a part of. It belongs to you and it depends on you showing up and participating in some way; even if that is to say, "Sorry, Gang, I can't make it back on that weekend but I will be there in spirit and I will help in whatever way I can until then."
This reunion is about Joy and Celebration. It is not about (as I said on facebook) comparing checkbooks, home size, hairlines or waistlines. Joy that we have survived as a group nearly a third of a century since June 1980. Celebration of what we have accomplished not as individuals, but as a group of people connected by a now thin strand of common thread: at one time the federal government, the State if Idaho, our community and our families forced us to go to a building at
1900 W Pine Ave, Meridian, ID and spend the majority of our day, 5 days a week with a nearly 650 people not of our choosing! If you were like me; during those 1095 days you experienced: laughter, tears, hope, dissapointment, joy, anger, friendship, rejection, love, connection, isolation, anxiety, dispair, growth, understanding, self discovery, self acceptance and probably back to...laughter.
Many of you know I was born in the Philippines and attended many schools before my folks retired to the Treasure Valley. Shortly after graduation, I joined the army mainly to get away from Idaho and to see the world. After serving overseas I still thought that Boise was to 'small' for me so I chose New York for my home. Although I loved my 6 years on the East Coast, it wasn't until I married a girl from our ole alma mater that I came to realize that Idaho had always been the home in my heart. Once I had kids and a family to think of, I high tailed it back as fast as I could. I discovered that even though I had been away in body, I had carried Idaho in my heart and my extended family and community was still here to welcome me back.
They say that you can pick your freinds and you can pick your nose; but you can't pick your friend's nose - or your family. We, the Meridian High School Class of 1980, are part of your 'extended' family. Love us or hate us; we are here to welcome YOU back. In the summer of 2010 we are having a family reunion. You are wanted, welcome, and invited to come home to visit and celebrate with your family - no excuses!
I look forward to seeing all your bright shiny faces both at the reunion in 2010 and through out the next year both in person and online as we plan our 30 year extravaganza!
"Warriors, Come Out and Play!"
Click the link above to go to our online photo album.
We would like you upload your photos of Then and Now.
