by Angel Shrout

Created on: September 26, 2010   Last Updated: September 27, 2010

Your high school years were the best of your life. You were happy and had big plans for your life. Friendships were formed that were destined to last into adulthood and you cannot believe how fast the time flew by. Before you know it you have graduated and stepped into you life with great hope and expectation. Some of your friends will begin college with you, some far away but the connections remain strong. This is the high school life one could have only dreamed of, and you got it.

Time passes, life moves on and you find yourself receiving the news about a class reunion. Of course you plan to attend. You arrive as nervous as you were on your first day of freshman year. Will you recognize anyone? Will they recognize you? Then the evening comes and you are instantly transported back in time to the years you wish had taken their time to go past.

Of course when you arrive you find all of your old friends instantly and the laughter and conversation flow freely. You find yourself surprised by how their lives have played out, how many stuck with their dreams and achieved them, how many fell short of the mark. As the evening winds down phone numbers and addresses are exchanged with promises of getting together again soon. Now do you keep those plans?

One would say absolutely. Connections in life are important. These individuals were privy to the most formative years of your life, and played important roles in shaping who you turned out to be. Make those calls, rekindle the connections. Friends who have known us when can be the catalyst to setting us back on the right track if we have wandered away. Some may also be our sounding board when we need to vent. Still others can become our most trusted confidante, just like they were in high school.

The choices lie within our grasp. Cultivating stronger foundations with our past can help us to go farther in our future. We all need people who knew us when to keep us grounded in reality and the fact that we have grown up. It is a nice refresher when we find those we love have as well. Making those fresh connections in life can give us the security in who we are and where we are headed. Some may remind us of where we don't want to go, but nothing is to stop us from becoming their mentor on the unlimited possibilities that lay ahead on our lives. We can glean knowledge from those who have already overcome where we are right now.

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