Back to the past – Part 2

13 girls and 7 boys came to our reunion. Most of us had studied together for 8 years so no one had trouble recognising each other. Except for that one girl who didn’t have flaming red hair anymore, she left a few people puzzled.

Amazingly our teacher, let’s call her Mrs S, didn’t recognize me. I know I was a bit ugly and awkward and had humongous glasses and big frizzy hair back then, but I didn’t think that I had turned into an unrecognizable stunner in the 20 years since :)

Once everyone had arrived at the restaurant and the initial giddiness of “oh my g*d, it’s YOU!!!” was over, Mrs S took out a little sand clock and started passing it around – everyone had limited time to tell others about what they had studied, where they had worked and what their family status was.

The girls were good – they just spat out their stats and the clock was moved on.  The boys, however, loved to talk! About their life philosophies and about not working too hard and just enjoying the good life and windsurfing and what not. The sand clock lost all meaning once it reached the boys’ side of the table.

After the introductions’ round, Mrs S pulled out a big bag that contained photos, diaries and reports from our school years. We were amazed that she had kept all that stuff and it was so much fun to see what good little Pioneers we had been back then – writing very politically correct reports along the lines of “Comrade such-and-such was present and wore his/her uniform properly”.

Many of the diaries and report books were written by none other than Yours Truly. There was a diary of our folk dance group, with details of all the shows that we did and all our trips, domestic and international as well. There were diaries of school reports that we did on the topic of “15 Friends” (15 republics of the Soviet Union). It was all incredibly endearing to see all that old stuff. Mrs S kept repeating that we were her most special class and that she always thought that all the planets must have aligned during that year when all of us were born.

Mrs S also had a little book where we all had written at the age of 15, what we thought we’d do in 10 years time. Absolutely everyone had written “job, marriage, kids, car”. I, however, must have been in a bad mood that day, because I had written “In 10 years time I’ll be a fat spinster who grows cacti.”  I’m grateful that these words didn’t come true :)

Once the “official” part was over, midnight had come and gone and we had said good-bye to Mrs S, we went on to a classmate’s mom’s house to continue the night.

No alcohol is sold in Estonia after 10pm, so various people went to raid their or their parents cupboards and came back with dozens of bottles of wine and beer.

We talked and laughed and reminisced until 5 am. Then we agreed that we will catch up again in 5 years time on the 20th of August and parted ways after HUGGING each other. We were all pretty tipsy by then, but it was probably the first time I have hugged most of my classmates :)

So yeah, it was a very truly an amazing and awesome experience and only once did someone mention to me that “yes, you did have really ugly glasses back then.”

All’s forgiven. I don’t remember the teasing as much as I remember the good times. Old age is a wonderful thing :)

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Read also:

• Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1991
• Back to the past – Part 1