Keep Track Of Your Yearbook: An Addendum

A few months back, I made a post talking about how it pays to keep your Senior Yearbook around - if only to track where your classmates end up.

This year makes 7 years since I graduated, I made a short list of the people I knew who had it worse than I have it now - some are dead, some are in prison, etc.

I ran into a few old friends these last few months, and I feel the need to add to the story that it's not always doom and gloom - and that sometimes things really do work out for the better.

I made mention of a friend who broke his back falling off a ladder - one day he was coming out of the McDonald's I work at while I was going in. He looked better than ever - he was walking better than I was, he looked thin - I should say, he was always a heftier individual, so I guess a better word would be "healthier". He had the bluest damned eyes I have ever seen, and he was smiling from ear to ear. He was on his way to a revival - it might have been this old fashioned tent revival they had going on at the time, your guess is good as mine - but just from the looks of him, life is going good for him - and the broken back wasn't enough to keep him down.

Another - he was an old coworker, classmate, and a friend to everyone I know. I ran into him in the middle of the night at a Casey's General Store a few towns over - while I was busy fucking around by my lonesome in town. He almost didn't recognize me - and I admittedly almost didn't recognize him - time will do that to you. To make a long story short, he's a fireman. He owns his house, and the land it sits on. He's still with the girl he was with in high school - they're going on ten years now. I'm not certain if he's married or not, but he might as well be if he isn't. He has some dogs - she has a job that takes her to big cities four hours that-a-way on some weekends - so he was enjoying some beer and pizza. We caught up and went out separate ways - but I have to say that if ever there was someone more deserving of a happy life, I don't know if I've met them. I don't think I know many people who could talk bad about him.

I did get a few updates about some other people form our school, generally it was just "this guy's in jail, this guy's on meth, etc. etc. etc." - but in all honesty I couldn't even remember some of those guys' names.