Life's Path
I attended our Kingman School reunion this past weekend. Kingman is my home, I grew up just north of this small hamlet on my parents farm. The school was a part of my life until it was reduced to an elementary school at the end of my eight grade. In thinking about the influence those years have had on my life in the past few weeks, the reflective journey has been enlightening. I remembered the friends I had, the teachers who shaped my education, and the experiences we all shared in those years. Our school was small, only 6 to 10 in each grade, we often shared a school room with one or more grades.

The reunion was a wonderful experience as we all caught up with each other's lives since we parted ways. I was surprised at how many I recognized, yet how a few have changed so dramatically I wouldn't have recognized them at all. One of my best friends told my husband of the time she accidentally lit my hair on fire in the bus. She put it out so quickly you couldn't even see where it was singed, but the lingering odour was not pleasant. It reminded me of the hot fall days branding cattle with my parents before we started cold branding.

We reminised about the countless hours we spent skating at the rink my Dad would flood every year for us. We laughed about the pranks we pulled on teachers, our principal was able to be there and he finally learned of some of them. He is amazing, he has changed so little and is so young at heart! He married late in life and has a beautiful 3 1/2 year old son who played with Brendan, our 4 year old, on the playground as we talked.

I found myself reflecting on my own life to date, remembering the youthful exuberance we all share as children, with the world out in front of us, our future an open book. My future is far different than I anticipated back then, yet every much as fulfilling as I had wanted. I wanted children and was blessed by four. I craved a career which I would love and I found that... because of my birth experiences. The two are much more intwined than I had anticipated, I am so blessed to be able to have both - the ability to be a full-time parent and enjoy my career.

I am also overjoyed that my classmates are all alive and healthy, though I continue to mourn the death of a classmates son with whom she was pregnant with in our final year in Kingman. She was all of sixteen when he was born, yet she was an amazing mother to him. He was in his early twenties when he died in a vehicle accident. I cannot imagine her pain in losing a child.

Finally, I have connected with a long-lost friend who has three children, all as beautiful and bright as she. Our kids all had a great time together at the reunion, off exploring the haunts we went to at their age. Our husbands also found a lot in common. We will be having a BBQ with them early next month and I can't wait to rekindle the kindred spirit we shared as children.

Past memories and the future an open book, I look forward to the next twenty years.