Back in high school, each class always voted on Senior Superlatives. You know, Best Dressed, Best Couple, Class Clown, those kind of votes.
In what might be a surprise to some people, I was voted Most Spirited. While some might not think a sports writer could ever be a peppy cheerleader, think again. I was doing high kicks on the sideline while yelling at someone on the offensive line for missing his block. And I knew the play book. On top of that, I was the one who never shied away from an opportunity of to make a fool of myself all in the name of school spirit.
Apparently, I won another award I was not informed of. Apparently, as one of my alumni told me the other day, I was voted "Most likely to be in charge of the reunion."
As I have realized, it is getting quite close to the time of year when classes will be celebrating the fact that they graduated a long time ago and because of that, feel the need to celebrate. And for the Champion High School Class of 1999, it's our first, so we're doing it up right.
While I think the idea of a massive picnic/BBQ/all-day fun fest has won with most of our classmates, there is still a massive amount of planning to do. And because I've won the party planner award, I started the ball rolling with most daunting task of all: Collecting addresses.
First off, as some might remember from the last time I wrote about the impending reunion, I was looking for our class president. Good news. He's alive, well, a father and living in Newton Falls. Thanks to all involved in the search party.
Secondly, I would like to say that I'm spoiled by technology. Because I want to know how in the world people planned reunions without MySpace and Facebook. Granted, I have not located all the people in my graduating class, but it's made my life a heck of a lot easier. And to those who have responded to my hefty amounts of requests for your addresses, thank you. To those who have been ignoring me... send me your addresses! Don't make me stalk you.
But seriously, I think the Facebook and MySpace was invented for this purpose only. It's definitely not for 12-year old girls to take pictures of themselves in mirrors and post them with captions such as, "IDK? What do you think? PC4PC?" And for those of you not in the loop, loosely translated that means, "I don't know if I like this. What do you all think compared to the shots you've taken of yourselves in the bathroom mirror. You comment on my picture and I'll comment on yours." I can't believe I know that.
Let me be the first person to tell you how much of a help networking sites have been. There are approximately 160 grads in my class. In one week, I have gathered half of them. One quarter of the remaining are people I knew I would have trouble contacting and the other half are people that I either see everyday or people who REFUSE TO WRITE ME BACK!
And, just to throw this out there, if there are any relatives or parents of alumni from the CHS Class of '99 who happen to be reading this, maybe mention to them to send me their address. It would help. And that, my friends, is the power of the pen.
As I'm thinking about the reunion, I wonder who's going to come. I wonder who is married, has kids, about to be married or not married anymore. I wonder if any old high school flames will rekindle or if any fights that started 10 years ago are still brewing. Because let's be honest, sometimes high school drama never dies.
And I wonder if we'll pick right back where we left off. Which, if I do remember, was in a driveway all sitting on tailgates of trucks talking about the future. Knowing us, it'll be strangely similar.
Sulonen is a sports writer at the Tribune. E-mail her at dsulonen@tribtoday.com