From 15 to 51

Immediately after the 30th reunion of class of 1977 of Taipei Medical College, I began planning for the 40th reunion of class of 1970 of Chia-yi County Junior High School. The difference between the two is that I constructed a blog after the 30th reunion, but I shall have a blog constructed before the 40th reunion in 2010. I have three years to find the old classmates. And it would be awesome to link the old teenagers together.

“You’re Sherry Li,” Maria recognized me first at a Toastmasters Christmas Party three years ago. I found her face familiar, but I couldn’t recall her name. That’s how I got reconnected with Maria Chou, my junior high and senior high schoolmate. That’s how I got reconnected with other classmates as well.

Both Maria and I are tall and beautiful, but we are different in characters. She loves to get connected with old friends and she documents everything in files in order. Me, on the contrary, I didn’t contact any classmates after I left school, and I threw away most records and photos of high school days.

After 50, I decided to become a different person. I want to do something for family and friends. I want to do something for community and society. I want to do something for myself. Whenever there is a chance to bring people together, I volunteer myself to shoulder the responsibility. Maria made my wish come true after she passed away.

I borrowed the junior high school and the senior high school photo albums from Maria’s husband after Maria’s funeral service. I promised him that I would return the albums to him as soon as I finished scanning them. Then I called a few classmates and announced my intention to construct a blog to link our old classmates together. Everybody hailed at my initiative.

Flipping through the old photo album of junior high school (7th to 9th grade), I realized how much I missed my old friends. We graduated in June, 1970. There were 16 classes, 8 classes (1st to 8th) of boys and 8 classes (9th to 16th) of girls. I belonged to the 14th class of 64 students. Maria belonged to the 12th class of 64 students. When I saw the last page of photo album, my signature was there. I was surprised to know that my signature remains the same all these years.

I am sure and convinced that I was closed to Maria in junior high school. Studying all signatures, I realized how close we were to one another among different classes in the care-free junior high school. I intend to find as many students of the signatures as possible. I want to see if they also have the same signatures from 15 to 51. I am sure Maria would be happy to see us get together from the heaven.