Makes You Wonder

A remarkable thing has occurred. So I shall remark upon it. Through various interesting circumstances, my teenage daughter has had to transfer high schools mid-year. If you've read previous posts, you might be wondering why she isn't also in on the homeschool experiment. She was in a private school for part of elementary and all of middle school. When high school came, she was dying to go to a 'real' school, so we moved her to public. She is a social butterfly and loves being surrounded by her friends.

Back to the story. Without going into the why's here (because I don't think I could make the story succinct otherwise) she has now transferred to my old Alma Mater. This is also the Alma Mater of both of my parents and various aunts and uncles. We were nervous and excited when we went to enroll her. We were taken on a short tour during which I got to insert things like, 'Wow, that's new,' and 'Hey, that's where my locker was.' Very surreal. In the main hall we came upon a display of all the panoramic pictures of classes back to the sixties. This, of course, led to 'Where are you?' and then snickers at all the eighties hairstyles. My parents are on the wall. Again, surreal.

While in the office filling out paperwork, a curious thought came to me, so I just blurted it out. I said, 'I never picked up my senior yearbook, do you think ya'll have it laying around somewhere?' I had moved overseas shortly out of high school (first husband, Air Force, don't want to talk about it), and had not stopped by the school before I left, nor had I ever gotten up the nerve to stop in for it after I got back (sans husband). I had paid for one, surely it was still there... The lady politely asked me what year and explained that she doubted it, but she would send a message to the yearbook coordinator. I felt sufficiently foolish and promptly forgot the matter.

Several days later, there was a message on my cell phone when I got off from work. It was a bubbly yearbook coordinator telling me that they actually still had several copies of that yearbook, and she'd be happy to let me have one. I actually jumped up and down on the spot. Luckily, my coworkers already think I'm a little strange. Arrangements were made to have my daughter stop by the yearbook room to pick it up the next week.

I had never seen this yearbook. I only knew that I hated my senior picture. My hair had been in drastic need of a cut and was very uncooperative. It had been suggested that the girls put on their make-up a little heavier than normal so it would look good in the picture. Mine ended up looking garish. Luckily, I had only ordered the basic prints package and was able to hide them away when they arrived.

The day came, and she picked up the yearbook. It was my dad's birthday, so we were all over at my parent's house for the party. My daughter informs me that she has been showing my picture to everyone at school all day (horror of horrors!) and that she thinks the picture is 'gorgeous' and that her guy friends said 'your mom's hot.' What??!!! She opens up to the page I'm on, and, wonder of wonders, it's actually not bad in black and white.

We had some more fun looking through at everyone while I pointed out things like my first boyfriend and guys on whom I just had a crush. More surreal-ness. Like I was in a time warp or something. It was so long ago (it seems), but looking at the pictures took me right back. I felt almost a solemn reverence as this portion of my life was completed, now that I had the yearbook. Another chapter closed. What struck me most about the whole situation, though, was the yearbook title. I felt like it was the most appropriate title to see when presented with my yearbook after so many years. It was 'Makes You Wonder.'