Life is hard. It is hard for everyone. (You probably already know that.)
At the reunion, I will encounter people who have suffered tremendous personal losses, horrible betrayals, and life-changing illnesses/injuries. There will not be anyone there who has not had at least one of these life events. Some will have had them all, sometimes more than once.
It is sobering, isn’t it? When I was young and naive, I could not have imagined the paths my classmates lives would take. When I was younger, I never gave much thought to much beyond my small circle of friends. My perspective was very narrow.
I will still feel young at the reunion, surrounded by so many familiar faces from the past, but I am no longer naive…my perspective has changed, widened, and everything is so much easier to see.