BUCKING THE SYSTEM: 10TH HIGH SCHOOL REUNION WILL BRING TOGETHER A CLASS OF TRUE FRIENDS

Sky rack!

Whip Crack!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Charleston, Charleston,

Way Ho~!

It's hard to think 10 years have passed since those words officially marked the end of my tenure in high school.

It was after that final Ho! after the Class of '89 whipped off our mortar boards and joyously threw them in the air, that we broke the bonds that had connected us for 12 or more years.

We had so much to share back then. Like the wonderful pride in our graduation year that often prompted us to refer to each other by the year rather than by a name.

Hearing Michael Kellum say, "What's up '89?" sounded so good back in the day. In fact, he still says it, and it still sounds good.

And there were other things that drew us together that senior year. Like the time we spent counting every 89th day so we could plan a Senior Skip Day. Or the stupid invincibility we felt when we raced to see who could slide their car down the levee without rolling over.

And don't forget Project Graduation, when we fell out laughing after bantamweight George DeMyers won the great big Impala because we knew he'd probably need a pillow to reach the pedals.

Those were fun memories from our final year together, but we had so many others. The 106 of us shared many secrets, jokes and memories that reminded us we were all crazysexycool, even when we weren't.

Who could forget seventh grade, the year we lost recess privileges and finally got to hear Mr. Heard do his "Mission to Control" attention-grabber?

Or eighth grade, which was the year the boys in the class finally outgrew me and Alecia Jones. That was also the year our class officers talked Mr. Moss into two school dances after a five-year moratorium.

And there are other memories, like the time petite little Michelle French got into a fight with and beat a junior class bully easily three times her size who had stolen her purse.

Or junior year, when we cheered on Thomas Rolwing and Tim Moore, the only white boys brave enough and good enough to play varsity basketball.

During our high school years, we had school spirit assemblies, basketball, tennis and track championships, marching band and Reeves Boomland to keep us busy. After we sang Oh Charleston High! together for the last time, many of us left safe little Charleston and entered a strange and wonderful new territory called life.

Well, life's roads have brought us back home this weekend for our 10-year reunion. Because I'm designing the reunion booklet, I've been able to find out what everyone's been doing.

Many of us are doing exactly what we planned, but others are far away from their high school dreams. Tiffany and Cory got married, just like she always said they would. And crazy, buckwild Tina Rodgers now works at the Pentagon. She's been to Somalia and Saudi Arabia.

Life has been good to many of us, and I can't wait to see my old friends and their new families. I'm looking forward to laughing at old jokes and dancing to old music, and just basically reliving the magic I felt graduation night.

And though I'll marvel at how much everyone has changed and how beautiful their children are, I'll be holding close those memories that can't be captured in a picture or a yearbook signature.

A toast to the Class of '89. May we live and love together forever.