and Words
I’ve been gone for.. so long now
Chasing everything that’s new..
I’ve forgotten how I got here
I’ve not forgotten you..
We were just children, with our eyes opened, and
You were all that I could see
You came close enough to know my heart-beat, but
Still not close enough for me..
Lyric excerpts from Genius.com.
I could tell stories of great romances in high school. There are great tales of great spiritual synchronicity or emotional belonging with a soulmate. I can recount the extraordinary circumstances by which a young woman and I were thrown together by fate. Sadly, they’d all be lies. My time in high school was socially awkward and even attended my own prom stag.
I was ambitious and generally happy in high school; my friends mostly accepted me for who I was. I remain in contact with many of them. Naturally, I had great interest in a number of young women but sadly never worked up the courage to approach them romantically. It may seem uneventful and maybe a little sad, but it’s the truth. I suspect many stories of high school were precisely like this.
Though quizzically, one classmate who wrote in the school newspaper, published a few tongue-in-cheek predictions of members of the Senior class for our futures. He predicted that I’d become a romance novelist under a pseudonym, an Asian sounding one if I remember correctly. Leon, don’t think that I had forgotten that, even decades later. Though I’m grateful that I didn’t get the ‘works as a waitress in the topless doughnut shop’.
My ten-year reunion
I attended my 10 year high school reunion in Fort Lauderdale. Florida, in general, aspires to be tropical paradise, and Lauderdale is no exception. Having grown up there, I took it for granted. It was great fun and I got to see many familiar faces, some with whom I reconnected.
I found that seeing what friends chose to do ‘when they grow up’ to be truly fascinating. Navigating through high school, I can’t say that I expected to end up being a computer geek. I simply followed the path that made the most sense along the way and that eventually led me to Microsoft. I’m not sure how many friends where genuinely surprised.
Naturally, there were some friends who did not attend and I truly wanted to see; missing those connection saddened me. I did tell at least one bully how much I detested him in school. However, I didn’t mention that, on at least one occasion where he shuffled down the stairs in front of me, I contemplated giving him one hard shove.
Of course, there was at least one conversation with one of these young women, who so keenly captured my interest ten years before. We exchanged polite words and made casual conversation. Maybe there was a hint of recognition about I felt while we were in school, but neither of us mentioned it.
This reunion was otherwise uneventful; it did not alter the trajectory of my life. However, it was still a ton of fun. 🙂
How good can a film about a reunion be?
It’s incredibly difficult to navigate something as common as a ten year reunion in a film and do it well. The film must be engaging yet believable. It must seem like this may happen in your high school. You’re not simply telling one story of one moment around one character; you’re telling the story of a group of friends and set apart by ten years. This is why I’m thoroughly impressed by delicate balance and depth of the movie Ten Years. With that said, I will advise you to watch it but will also subsequently spoil one scene for you.
Reeves, a recording artist played by Oscar Isaac with one phenomenally popular song, takes time off from his tour to attend his ten year high school reunion. He spends his time talking to Elise, played by Kate Mara. Interspersed with the scenes with all the other friends, you see the two of them flirting, each exchanging words and glances.
In one scene they sit opposite each other in a booth at the local bar, when an inebriated friend insists that he should perform his own hit song on the Karaoke machine. Encouraged by his friends, he walks up to the stage to perform his song. Though he initially starts it on that Karaoke machine, he abruptly stops. He is weirded out by that setup and asks for an acoustic guitar.
And there was the singing of the song
Then this song “Never Had” starts in earnest with the intimate marriage of his voice and the acoustic guitar. He maintains his gaze on Elise as he sings his ‘big hit song’. It’s a personal serenade but in front of all their friends. He song tells a story of a quiet longing and regret with perhaps a hint of hope and optimism. As the song continues and he maintains his gaze, she suddenly realizes that the song was written about her. Her wordless expression as she discovers this speaks volumes. I can’t begin to comprehend how fast his heart was racing as he finally sang it to her nor when she realizes how much she truly meant to him.
He concludes his performance on stage and returns to the table, where they now sit side by side. They continue to talk this time with bigger hints about their future, but without any definitive commitments from either one. The movie ends without any conclusive answers about what happens between Elise and Reeves; they are just two characters in this story. It left us with our own longing and hoping for Reeves; it was delicious.
Can we capture lightning in a bottle?
People often fool themselves into believing that capturing the same people in the same place will magically bring it all back. We fail to understand just how fragile these moments are. Think of them as photographs; that captured moment will never occur again. Understanding that simple fact will teach us to appreciate them as we live them instead of trying to relive that moment after.
As a side note, before the pandemic my friends and I had a recurring topic of lunch conversations about favorite roles by different actors. When the name Chris Pratt came up, I listed his role in this movie among my favorites. Which other role by Chris Pratt make the list? His role in the movie Moneyball; though I’m both a numbers person and a baseball geek.