Blast from the Past

Korrin B.

September 25, 2010 - 6:30 PM

I think generally, high school is a pretty great thing to go through and then move on from. Those are some pretty awkward years. However, I spent the last ten days on a blast from the past with an old friend of mine and she helped remind me of the things that I actually did like about high school.

I met my friend, Rachael, in the fifth grade. She spent her first year of high school at the same one as me, but then moved to the one a city over for the next two. Despite not being at the same school, we always remained friends and would get together just to dress up crazy and gorge ourselves on candy. We always had so much fun together. At the end of junior year, she moved away to Arizona and then within a year or two, to Utah. Two years after she had left California, I made it out to Utah to visit with her. Now, three years after that, she just made it back out here to see me.

Rachael and I made our way from San Francisco to Eugene and then back down to our hometown in Humboldt County, California. It was nice getting to show her around and just be able to relax with her. One night, we had a total spa experience full of body wraps, facials, and deep conditioning for our hair. Rachael is also in the process of finishing up cosmetology school, so she cut and highlighted my hair for me while she was in town as well! We ate at all of our favorite places back home, returning to some of them several times. What I love most about Rachael is she is honest and true to herself. She is still the craziest girl and most loyal friend she was five years ago when we still lived in the same city. It was neat for her to get to come back.

My favorite part about our visit, however, came at the end. I happened to find three VHS tapes in my room back home. One of them was a school project I had done with two other students in sixth grade, another was our eighth grade trip video, and the third was a tape Rachael had made for me once when she was grounded so that we could still talk! I have a VCR still up in Eugene, so when we drove back up to stay the night before she flew out of Portland, we had a little movie night. Complete with desserts, we watched ourselves with embarrassment in junior high. We were, and probably still are, complete dorks! It was neat seeing everyone we went to school with look so little and we had to cringe at some of our outfit choices back then. The funniest video was by far the one Rachael had made for me. We used to write in a notebook and she'd leave it on the corner near her house for me to pick up. While she was grounded once, she decided to make her entry as a tape instead. It was hilarious listening to all of the things we thought were so important back then! My advice to junior high students after seeing that would definitely be - don't sweat the small stuff!

It was nice to see Rachael again and have a sweet little stroll down memory lane. I'm happy I am no longer a high school student, but remembering the fun times I had with Rachael reminded me that it wasn't completely awful. We vowed to try and see each other for a quick visit once a year from now on.