Turn No. 34

So we (by we I mean most of us) got our class rings today. Hip hip hurray- right?

I think so. Right. Yes, this is something to celebrate. When you think about this class, or any class at all, it's made up of a bunch of "groups". Not cliques, because cliques tend to be Gossip Girly and evil, but groups. And while everybody can be nice and talk to everybody else, there is still a one or two foot wall between one group and the other-- easy to step over, but still there. So what's the point of a ring that symbolizes unity if half the people in class don't talk to each other and half picked out a ring totally unrelated to the school anyways? Is it an attempt to bring us together?

Not really. Nothing will ever make all of us BFFs, but I think that in a million years when we're all old and standing in line at the Vons on the corner, with a cart full of food for kids that are way too expensive and increasingly more demanding and ungrateful, we might see one of those people from The Other Group. And I'll bet that if and when we happen to re-find someone from The Other Group, we won't walk away. Unless the person was just antisocial and unfriendly and mean in high school, in which case we'll instead go home and tell our kids horror stories about the person. But if they were nice, or at least tolerable, we will say hello and "Oh my God, weren't you in my class in high school?"

Wishful thinking? I hope not.

It's tradition to have someone turn your ring, and I'm hoping to get as many of my 111 turns as possible from people in my class. Of course, family and other non-school friends get a turn and wish too. In fact, the 34th turn went to my great-grandma. I explained the whole wish/turn concept, and she was only too happy to do so after inspecting my ring from every angle in every kind of lighting-- I'm surprised she didn't pull out the flashlight she keeps under her nightstand for additional visibility.

"Ok, so I turn it like this..." she says in Spanish "and now a wish for you that you never ever change the way you are right now, and when you choose, choose well." Cuando escoges, escoge bien. I'm pretty sure she was talking about choosing boys, but the advice works for anything.

When you make a choice, make the best one. Make the one that will let you do anything and everything you want to, not the one that will get you sidetracked or worse, blown totally off course. Choose the things that you can look back on and say, "Wow. I did something great that day."

And now I will end this little opinion editorial/philosophical thing, fun as it is to write. There's a lot to be done tomorrow and not a lot of sleep to be had. Hopefully tonight I remember to set my alarm clock.