A decade seems long, but goes so fast

Inspired by Elizabeth, The Mommy Librarian

On Aug. 5, my high school classmates (or, some of them at least) will gather for our 10-year reunion. Ten years ago, maybe on this very date, I graduated from high school.
I still remember what I was wearing, a hideous green dress with giant white flowers on it, it was very 1966, and ugly white strappy shoes. Of course, the maroon cap and gown over all that also.
Ten years ago I was 17. I was preparing to move to Davis, CA where I would be going to college. I spent the summer working at day camp and hanging out with my friends, who I was sure I'd be friends with forever. Those friendships quickly fizzled out once I was wrapped up in the freshman festivities.

Ten years ago my dad's second wife was pregnant with my little sister, who will reach double digits in December. She'd have another baby 2.5 years later, and he'd be developmentally disabled because of a structural brain defect. He just turned 7. My full blood little brother was just 15 in 1996 and still had a chance to make something of himself. Now he's almost 26 and still lives at home with my mom. At least he graduated high school!

Ten years ago, my dad was sick with lung cancer for a second time. We didn't know if he would live through it, but he did. He made it another nine years before succumbing to heart disease last summer. In the midst of all that cancer worry, if someone told me it would be a heart attack that would take my dad, I wouldn't believe them.

Ten years ago I drove a busted up 1984 white Honda Accord. I eventually blew the head gasket on that car because I never ever changed the oil. Now I drive a 1999 dark green Mazda Protege sedan. Hey, it's paid for.

In 1996 I thought for sure I would go to college, graduate and go on to law school...two years into college I hated my major (but was stuck) and definitely did NOT want to go to law school anymore. Now I look back and realize my major wasn't bad at all and I really should have gone to law school. I would have loved it.

Ten years ago my mom was still a teacher (she's now in administration) and my dog was still alive (she died my senior year of college). I was also about 30 pounds lighter but still thought I was fat. I was wrong. Oh, and I had super long hair, all the way down my back. Now if my hair gets past my shoulders I get makeover twitches.

Ten years ago I was completely infatuated with a guy who completely didn't deserve the attention. I look back now and say "what were you thinking?" Ah, the fickle heart. I would waste time again two years later on another jerk, and yet another jerk two years after that.
If someone would have come up to me on the day of my high school graduation and told me that in five years I would meet the man I would marry at a bar in Vacaville, CA and that five years after that we would have two children and be living in the mountains of Arizona, I would have thought that person was crazy.

Our third wedding anniversary is in two days. If someone would have told me three years ago that a) I was pregnant and didn't know it and b) before we celebrated two years of marriage we'd have one baby and be working on another, I'd have laughed out loud.
But here we are.