Small world

[cue the annoying music]

I grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland that is roughly 700 miles from where I live now. I lived in the same house the entire time I grew up; my parents actually paid off a 30-year mortgage. Although located on the edge of a major metropolitan city, Strongsville is still rather small, with only 44,000 residents. Living way down here in Green Acres, I don't usually encounter people from good ol' Strongsville.

When my high school class had their XXth reunion two years ago, I did not attend but bought a copy of the program. As I flipped through it, I noticed that one address was in the same town as I live in. How odd! I looked at the name of the person, and it looked vaguely familiar. Conversations with my mother and my friend Jane helped me to remember that Mike attended school with me from elementary school on through high school, and that his family actually lived in our same neighborhood.

Fast forward to now: I decided to run for the open seat on Aidan's school advisory council and I had to submit a short bio. When the bios were distributed, I saw that the woman running against me for the seat had the same last name as my former classmate. Her bio also mentioned that they were originally from Ohio, so I thought it couldn't be a coincidence.

When I arrived at the school on Thursday evening for the PTO meeting, I asked the election proctors if they knew Lynn and one of them pointed her out to me. I went over and introduced myself, and after we exchanged pleasantries about running against each other, I told her that I thought I went to high school with her husband. She confirmed that his name is Mike and that he did graduate from Strongsville High School in 19XX. She also said that he would be arriving later so we could meet again after all these years.

Lynn does a lot of work at the school and I soon realized that she knows a lot of people. We had a good time chatting and she introduced me to many people, each time telling them our "small world" story. Shortly before the meeting began, Mike arrived. I could see in his face the boy I know many years ago and he is actually funnier and friendlier than I remember.

It was good to connect with someone from my past. And, for the record, I lost the election.