Reunions, Reconciliations, and Reflecting on Who You Really Are

On reunions

“But everybody else is more successful than I am,” cried bird.

“Everybody else is a myth,” replied bear. “You are a fact.”

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📷: Spatial Defrag
…

My mom is going to her high school reunion tonight. She’ll celebrate 65 years since graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1958.

I was thinking about the last high school reunion I went to. It was my ten year.

At the time, everybody else seemed so successful, so “on track.” And I remember feeling embarrassed about where I was in my own life.

Others were married. Had degrees from impressive colleges. Were already well-established in their careers. They owned homes. Took vacations. And even had kids.

How did everybody else seem to have it all together while I felt lost and confused?

When I was asked what I was up to, I remember feeling my heart race, nervous:

“I’m looking at my options,” I said, ambiguous about where I’d already been, what I’d already done.

“Maybe consulting?” I replied, noncommittally, before slipping into the crowd, grabbing another drink.

I’ve never gone to another reunion.

Stories matter.

And the stories we tell about ourselves, our lives, the paths we’ve taken and not taken matter that much more.

Because these self-stories, these words we stack in our favor or against, they give us strength or they cut us down.

Truth or not, these words become foundation. And belief follows quickly.

So, if we’re not championing ourselves with words that support, who will?

What if I’d shared that I found myself wondering about what really mattered as I slept under the stars on a hot desert night (as I had the night before that reunion)?

Where was that story?

The stories we tell ourselves—and to a lesser, but important degree, to others—shape the way we view our past, how we see ourselves in the now, and what we believe is possible for our future.

And while the things we “do” rarely actually matter; how we feel about them, however, and how we feel about ourselves always does.

“Everybody else” is a myth, and one that keeps us small and compliant.

What sentence can you rewrite in your self-story today to champion the amazing person you are?