to the eastside high school class of 2001...

Tonight Todd held his annual Christmas party. It's always fun to go to the party because usually it is a chance for people from high school that are at different colleges to get together and reminisce on how things were and talk about how things are going now. This years party was a little different from normal... This is the last one.

See, Todd is graduating from college this May, along with most of the people that go to the party each year. After 4 years, we are going to be completely done with college, which in a way means we will be done with each other. Sure we will always be able to get in touch with each other through e-mail and the phone, but after this year, there is no absolute...

Every year since this one, we could pretty much always count on being home within the vicinity of Eastside and each other at Christmas time. Next year, people will be working jobs, possibly in far away cities, with significant others, and possibly new additions to their families.

Even this year, we discussed some of the people from high school who have already crested that hill in their life... our classmates who are married, have children... It's so weird to think that that time has actually come for us. And you know, in a way, it kinda catches you off guard. Four years ago, we were all at the same spot in our lives... graduating from high school. Now, 4 years later, we all aren't at the same spot anymore. That's kinda scary.

So among that class of about 250, there are now college students, college graduates, graduate students, workers, mothers, fathers, fiancees, husbands, wives... Among that class of 250, there are adults.

And even though this was the last "Todd's Annual Christmas Party," there will be plenty more Christmas parties for all of us... with plenty more people and plenty memories to look back on. Life has pretty much just begun for us. We haven't experienced anything... maybe that is why they call graduation "commencement." Maybe our lives are just now commencing...