Hello L-S Class of 2005 it has been a minute, or rather 10 years

One afternoon while I was at work, I noticed an email flashing in my mailbox. It was a group email, the type of email I generally abhor, but the names attached to the thread I recognized with a vague sense of familiarity.

There were three names: Doug Thomas, Colbi Lehman, and Corrianne Vanderkolk (congratulations Corrianne on receiving a difficult last name to spell, I sympathize).

Maybe it was the hour of the morning that lead to my confusion, but besides these three people being of my graduating class, I failed the see the correlation.

I then I had the paranoid thought that maybe I posted something on Facebook that was unsavory and they were creating a consolidated front against me.

Timidly, I opened the email and one disturbing fact dawned on me: my 10 year high school reunion was approaching.

As I scanned the email, I thought back 10 years ago, when my hair touched my shoulders and the entire Led Zeppelin discography would blare through the speakers of my car. Apparently during the early 2000s, I was stuck somewhere in the 1970s.

On the weekends, I could be found with a group of friends playing music late into the night, thinking of time only in transitory terms. Like an offender serving a sentence, I counted the years, months, and days until I would walk through the high school gym to receive my diploma. When you are young, you tend to look forward -- the next step, the next phase, always looking for the path ahead. After 10 years of being out of high school, I find myself from time to time looking back, not glorifying it, but in terms of seeking a connection.

One oddity about living in Linton is this city often forces you to be reflective. For example, during my tenure at the Greene County Daily World, I have written a couple of stories where I had to visit my old high school.

It is an odd feeling to go back to your former school, being so many years removed. When I first walked inside, I felt a justifiably impression of deja vu. In the main foyer, I saw the bathrooms where, during the more slow parts of the day, I would often duck out of class to try and catch a moment of sleep (much like today, I still have a difficult time waking up in the morning).

When I walked past auditeria, I could see myself at my old lunch table -- about three tiers down on the left-hand side of the room. The faces of my friends encircled the table, while we hotly debated the merits of the drummers: John Bonham and Keith Moon.

Walking through the high school was as much an internal journey as it was physical. Each step was a brief reprieve into my subconscious and the buried memories.

I walked past the band room where I remembered Mike Puckett, a man I still retain the deepest respect for, standing on the podium in the front of the room, tapping his conductor wand against his music stand. In band I found a love for music, a love which has stayed with me my entire life.

It was in a music appreciation class were where Mr. Puckett posed an interesting question to me. During an exam, he offered a bonus question which involved trains leaving a station at a certain time and arriving at another time. The music appreciation class took place early in the morning, and mathematical thought was a mere abstraction at such an hour. Being an intrepid student, I wrote as my answer, "What is time?"

Scientifically, time is relative to speed and at a certain speed you can technically you can move forward in time. But how time is measured to a person is subjective. The moments you wish will last, end up moving too fast, and the moments you want to end have a tendency to move slower.

I was quite a different a person then I am today, but I was would wager most people would probably think the same about themselves. 10 years...there are times when I look in the mirror and in my reflection, I no longer see the same boy staring back at me. But sometimes when I am in my car, when I hear a particular song, I am inclined to believe attending high school was not so long ago.

So, to my fellow classmates, it is important to note that on Saturday, August 22 we will be having our 10 year reunion. Tickets are currently on sale via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/linton-stockton-class-of-2005-10-year-reunion-ticke.... You have to order tickets by Thursday, August 6.

Also, there will be a slide show where anyone is welcome to submit pictures from our high school years. To submit photos, email them to LSHSclassof2005@gmail.com.

Grant is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 19. He can also be reached via email at gkarazsia@gmail.com.