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I like to come up with short-hand / abbreviations for things, and that’s what came to mind for our college class reunion just concluded. 

Another short-hand reference could very well be “lovefest”. 

Allow me to explain why I leap immediately to the word “love” and our classmates. 

Certainly, it is only my perspective I am sharing, but maybe some (many?) other classmates feel the same. 

When you don’t see people very often, there’s a natural and obvious potential for initial awkwardness, uncertainty, questions running through your mind as to how seeing folks you haven’t seen in a while, maybe even decades, how that’s all gonna be.

Will I remember names? 

Will I remember faces? 

Will it be hard to have conversation? 

These are all legitimate aspects of any reunion. As for me my anxiety was running high in lead up to the weekend.

But I find time in again with our class, somehow we 89ers come together in a special way.

Many times, over and over again in relationship, in reconnecting, with a little effort, things rekindle: the friendships, the shared experiences and lessons, the good (and not so good) times. It’s the shared experiences that matter. I’m sure our class isn’t alone in this. 

Mind you I also acknowledge that not all conversations are easy, not always fluid; we don’t remember everyone in the same way, some reconnects are more clunky.

But more times than not, there is at minimum a genuine willingness, desire, and energy of goodwill, a candid interest in catching up, sharing the life stories that we’ve all lived through, the wins, the struggles, and hopefully a little joy. 

All of that amounts to love; it’s the common ground we share. It’s what’s inside, caring a little (or a lot) about each other, adding texture and depth to each others lives, from decades past to present day.

And so for the various chats and catch up I was blessed to share with Eric, Doug, Jason, Aideen, Chris, Beth, Mike, Teresa, Ann, David, Erin, Cynthia, John, Matt, Megan, Tony, Lisa, Jack, Mary Anne, Tom, Kathy, Fred, Celeste, Joe, Laura, Steve, Nancy, Michelle, Dan, Christine, Bob, Caroline, Lorin, Joel, Mickey, Scott, Jeff, Colleen, Mark … and others for sure,

Humbled and grateful for the love, 

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Lovefest,

So SO GOOD.

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