There is just one moon and a golden sun

29 years ago, I graduated from high school.  My graduation was a nightmare of epic proportions from start to finish and yes, I'm exaggerating for storytelling purposes but only slightly.

At my school, who you walked with in the processional for graduation was a Big Deal.  It didn't matter that family and friends waaaaaay up in the stadium seats couldn't tell who you were walking with, let alone which one of the hundreds of teens in red and white caps and gowns was you, YOU knew who you were walking with and that was what mattered.

So, I was all set to walk with the brother of my then-boyfriend but on Graduation Day, Brother and I got in an argument about something, I don't remember what, and when I got to the ceremony and found him, he informed me that he was walking with someone else and I was shit outta luck.  Great.  Just great.  And for some stupid reason, the People In Charge refused to let us walk in groups, we had to walk in pairs.  So I'm hung out to dry, the processional is starting and I start looking frantically for someone, anyone, to walk with.  At this point, I didn't care WHO as long as I had someone to walk with.  So I spot a guy from the soccer team kind of standing by himself and I'm all "Dude, ya got anyone to walk with?" and he's all "No" and I grab his arm and tell him he's walking with me and he's all "Ok" and off we go.  Remember that story.

So, the graduation ceremony is over and families are allowed to come out on the field and I don't see my boyfriend and his parents tell me he wasn't feeling good so he didn't come (he had serious health issues).  So I'm thinking Great.  First I get dumped by his brother and now I find out my boyfriend didn't even come to my graduation.  What else can go wrong?  Ha.  Ha.  So my parents come down on the field and I think we took some pictures although I'm probably wrong because I've never seen any pictures from my graduation and people are all coming up and hugging me and I'm all "thanks, thanks" but I'm feeling bummed because my boyfriend wasn't there.

So after awhile, the stadium has pretty much cleared out and I start looking around for my family to let them know I was ready to leave and I can't find them.  I'm looking around and asking the few people who are left if they've seen my family and nope, nobody has seen them.  That's odd, I think to myself.  They know I have no way to get home because we didn't live anywhere near the stadium.  And I'm looking for them and it finally dawns on me:  THEY LEFT ME.  Again.  From the time I was an infant, my parents had the bad habit of driving off and forgetting me.  I'm not joking.  One time, I think I was about 15, they left me, on Christmas night no less, at a party we had gone to and by the time I figured out that they had once again left me behind, it was 2:00am and I had to get a ride with this guy on the back of his motorcycle and we didn't live close by.  Freeways were involved and it was the middle of the night and I didn't have a coat or a helmet and I froze but at least someone made sure I got home.  I ended up dating that guy for a bit.

But I digress.  So I'm standing there, in my cap and gown, abandoned and alone, and finally I see an old friend and I tell him that I got left behind and he's all "again?" and takes me home where I walk in to see all of my family eating and drinking and I'm all " hey thanks for leaving me behind...again" and they're all "oh" and my boyfriend is there so I'm all happy until we went to a graduation party and my boyfriend ended up getting in a fight over me which I found neither romantic nor thrilling and basically it was one helluva rotten Graduation.

So.  Flash forward to yesterday, which was Thing 1's graduation (photos will be posted in a later blog entry.  This post is about ME).  We're at his friend's house, eating and drinking and I'm talking to Thing 1's crony, The Big Julian who shares a birthday with Thing 1, and I don't know how we got on the subject but he asked me where I went to high school and I tell him and he's all "No way!  That's where my dad went!" but he says his dad graduated 5 years after me but he thought his dad's brother graduated the same year I did.  "What's his name" I ask and Big J tells me his uncle's name and asks if I remembered him.

And I tell Big J that not only did I remember his uncle, I walked with him in the processional at graduation.  Way!  

So he immediately calls his uncle and asks him if he remembers someone named Kelly Perkins from high school and his uncle tells him," Yeah, I walked with her at my graduation, why do you ask?"  Big J tells him that I'm sitting right there and that I'm the mom of his best friend and how crazy is that?  And Big J is telling the story to everyone at the party and everyone is all "No way!" and we're all "Way!"

It's a Small World After All.