One Hundred Years to Live

Last Saturday my middle school had a 20th Reunion celebration. As I got ready I couldn’t help but be filled with the same fear that I had before my first middle school dance. To mitigate the feeling of awkwardness for not drinking alcohol I brought the famed Bethenny Frankel Mingle Mocktails for the group. But upon entering the auditorium I was greeted with bear hugs that were backed by genuine love. In so many ways, I felt like I was home.

attendees from the SPS class of 2004

As we lined up for a photo, the songs we had sung at class night on that same stage came flooding back to me, the lyrics of one in particular were super emergent.

“I’m 15 for a moment

Caught in between ten and 20

And I’m just dreaming

Counting the ways to where you are…

15, there’s still time for you

Time to buy and time to lose

15, there’s never a wish better than this

When you’ve only got a hundred years to live.”

Fifteen years old is a world without the pressure, and in a lot of ways a world without pain. For most of us, life hadn’t showed us how it could go wrong, really wrong yet. 

I want to take this opportunity to offer a moment of solace for our classmates Jesse, Angelo, and Marty, who are no longer wi