Friday, April 18, 2008

The More Things Change. . .

The More They Stay The Same.

It's amazing how no matter how many people filter through, no matter how many years pass, things really stay the same. And this is a good "staying the same".

I had a LOT of drive time this afternoon between work and home [Note to self: Make sure you put your flash drive in your bag BEFORE you head home for the weekend - had to go all the way back for it]. This might have been a bad thing, except I'm getting very comfortable driving and talking on my cell phone at the same time. Yes, Dad, I always use my headset. So, during my extended travels, I was able to talk to three clients to confirm parties next week, a fellow distributor to plan an outing this weekend and pump each other up for our weekend shows, and get caught up with 2 of my cousins.

So where does the whole "The More Things Change" thing come in? My cousin's boyfriend's sister's son (did you follow that? Read it again if you got lost.) is graduating this year from the same high school as me. She got the announcement in the mail this week. I was asking her what the design looked like for this year's class, in particular, I was curious about whether the kids were still using a rather prominent element that came to be 2 years prior to my older sister's announcements were chosen. The class of 1987 had a lot of interesting characters that made up the student body. One of the boys was quite memorable, not only for his fun, wild ways and gregarious personality, but also for his artistic inclinations. My high school's mascot is the Wizard, which is incredibly unique, and has an interesting story all it's own. But, I digress. During his senior year, this young man decided that his legacy to his classmates would be to hand draw the artwork for the commencement announcements. It is a stunning drawing of a Wizard in long robes, wearing the "traditional" hat and holding a lightening bolt in one hand and a crystal ball in the other. Ever since it's first appearance, that beautiful drawing has "made the cut" and been included in the announcements. Not by mandate of the school, but by vote of each year's senior class. And the class of 2008 kept up the tradition.

It's good to know that no matter how many years pass, or how many seniors "make it to the blue chairs", that there is still something special that continues from year to year. So memorable is this piece of art, that when I finally made it home later today, I felt compelled to pull out my senior year scrapbook and look at it again.