Old School

Like every Christmas for the last 10 years or so, a few of my high school friends get together for our annual Christmas dinner somewhere fancy.

The degree of dinner fanciness has changed with the times as well. I think the first few years we went to the waffle house, then it was off to Outback or another steakhouse of that level, and these last few years, the dinners have been amazing at some very nice places.

It’s really interesting to see how far some of them have come in their professional and personal life. Maybe it’s just the group, but they all seem to be doing quite well. We hear about others that we knew in high school that isn't fairing quite as well, and it's good to see the ones that I care about and keep in contact are doing well.

For many of us, this is the only time we see each other every year. Although you’d never be able to tell that if you saw us together. I guess knowing each other since 9th grade or longer makes you pretty familiar with someone.

It's not that we don't want to know about all the details of each other's lives, but we don't think it's necessary. We always know the big and important things. It's something nice to look forward to during this time to be able to catch up with all the little details.

A lot of things may have changed with our lives, but they’re all still the same people on the inside. It’s like I always say, people don’t really change.

Sometimes, that’s not a bad thing.