School Family

When I went home this weekend for Easter, I ran into a couple friends from high school.  We chatted for a while, catching up since we havent seen each other since graduation.  We asked each other what we knew of other people from our class, exchanging such gossip for a good hour.  It made me realize how close my graduating class was.  I'm not so sure that places outside of a small town can be that way.

My entire graduating class

I am positive that everyone has had close friends in high school.  You hung out and spent a lot of time with this group of people.  But depending on the size of your graduating class, you might not have been so close with everyone in the class.  I can't imagine graduating with thousands of people, like some of my friends have told me.  You could not possibly get to know the whole group on a personal level.  I graduated with 136 people.  I can still name every one of the people.  I can tell you their parents, their friends, where they lived, and even more.  No, I wasn't a creeper.  But I spent 13 years with them.  I had classes with all of them.  I had field trips with all of them.  I rode the bus with all of them.  I KNEW them all.



Joey (middle; standing) with his graduating class



Schools all around my house were just as small.  My friend Josh graduated with 180.  My friend Marissa graduated with 110.   My cousin Joey's class was even smaller; he graduated with 66 people.  Before graduation, Joey and I talked about how close we were to our class, and how sad it was that we were leaving them all.  We also were kind of scared for heading off to college.  We grew up with the same 136 (or 66 for him) people.  It has always been the same people with the same atmosphere.  I do miss that camaraderie.  But Penn State has shown me that stepping out of your comfort zone isn't so bad.  Thrown into a situation where I was no longer with all people that I knew, I have learned a lot about networking.  It's a new experience to have to start over making new friends.  While I miss the closeness of Penn Cambria, Penn State is definitely preparing me for the working world.  The world is much bigger than a small town, and I am more than ready to expand!