Wait, that’s #breakfastclub.
This is actually a story of a group of women connected by memories, laughter, love, joy and tears.
It’s the tale of how an impromptu visit with a group of classmates became a life changer.
It started as a quickly planned get together when friend Kathy came home from Vancouver for a couple of days. Kathy reached out to see if I was available and could have a few friends over to my house for a visit. She had a yen for smores over a campfire, so we reached out to a few ladies to pop over for dinner and a visit.
I expected to have a nice catch up on each other’s lives and enjoy a chatty, easy evening.
All of that happened, but so much more.
Kathy and Lisa popped by a little early and we recreated one of my favourite images made when we were in grade 8 in photography class. This class, and that image were partly what ignited my passion for imagery.
The image below is a symbol of our continued friendship, connection and love for each other.
The visit started off with a tour of our school, many thanks to Tofield School and Candace Perry. Candace very patiently let us visit every single classroom, stand in the halls recalling memories, and roam the school to see what stayed constant, marveling over all of the changes.
As this group of 50-somethings wandered the halls, the ghosts of our school aged selves walked, pranced, skipped, flirted and ran the halls with us. I could hear our voices from back then, feel the presence of our former selves, and see us sitting in our classrooms.
Visiting each classroom, so many memories came up, teachers were remembered, adventures and misadventures were related and traumas revisited.
At our kindergarten classroom, I could see the castle in the corner, my classmates climbing, running and laughing. I remember the first time I lied down for naptime on that floor with my little green pillow and floor carpet.
I remembered my first kiss in the school gym; and my second. I remembered Denise, bumping, setting, and slamming the volleyball over the net. She brought along her volleyball jersey and posed for a few photos in the gym, while Kathy had a quiet and introspective moment in her father’s classroom.
I remembered Karen and Lisa, painting murals and acting in the drama room, Diana with her gorgeous smile and confident, long-legged walk, Lori driving us down main street at lunchtime and Kathy’s fabulous and contagious laugh.
I remembered Tanya joining our class for a year and half, making such an impact that none of us has forgotten her and we call her friend to this day.
On a tour of our little town, we stopped by to see our favourite teacher, Mr. Allan. This man changed lives and has generations of students who love him still, including me and my children. At this stop – not a dry eye in the house, especially Mr. Allan’s.
We were parts of each other’s worlds for so many years; but time has a way of changing how we orbit one another, the rotations, once so small and tight, now larger and with less reach.
When we came together after so many years, that original orbit; the kind you only experience growing up in a small-town Alberta; it snapped right back into place, only tighter. It felt incredibly easy to slip back into friendships, and it was incredible to see the same mannerisms in people that I haven’t seen in some for many years. It was a reminder of why we loved each other way back when, and a kick in the a$$ telling us to embrace what we have together far more often.
We graduated 35 years ago, we’re women in the prime of our lives, happy, productive, and accomplished, but over the course of this visit, we all realized that we are still growing.
Conversations were incredibly vulnerable, open, emotional and raw. As kids, we saw each other in a certain light, maybe we saw one another hurting at some point in time. We didn’t have the life experience, the knowledge, compassion or understanding to help. As women, we can band together, embrace our history, catch up on journeys taken since walking out those school doors, celebrate and lift each other.
As I looked at each of my friends as she shared, I felt as though a punch in the gut had landed. There was a certain knowledge that opened my eyes to the fact that, as a child; as a teenager; I had perceived each of them through my own self-absorbed angst. I envied the beauty; the athlete; the artist; the actor; the sweetheart; the outgoing; the popular, thinking that they and their lives were perfect.
I saw in myself the struggler, the hanger-on, the imperfect, the one lucky to be loved by them. What I truly didn’t realize is that each of us perceived our friends as their perfect selves in their perfect lives (and that this is also how they saw me) – but all saw in ourselves the same doubt and angst. Why it has taken me so long to realize that, I’ll always wonder.
My friends, we are all on a journey of self-discovery, and we gave each other a very precious gift on this visit. We share a past history, at this visit we shared our recent history, now we make more history together with the knowledge that we are all the beauty; the athlete; the artist; the actor; the sweetheart; the outgoing; the popular.
Sincerely,
The Breakfast Club
Um.. The Tofield Class of 1988
Located just outside of Edmonton, Alberta and serving Camrose, Tofield, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, the Rockies and beyond, Carla Lehman Photography is a nationally accredited professional photographer providing full-service luxury photography for portraits, personal brands and entrepreneurs, equine and pet lovers.
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Fabulous write up Carla! Amazing perspective and so very true!! It was amazing to see the pictures of all of you! ❤️
Irma! Thank you so much! I hope it does these incredible women justice!
Carla, you captured the day beautifully, both in words and visually. Love the homage to The Breakfast Club. How fitting.
Thank you Kathy, it was a better day that I could possibly have anticipated. I’m grateful for each one of you.
What a fun day! You can feel the emotions of the day through the images. Loved this read.
Jody, thank you so much, that’s exactly what I hoped to convey, was just how darn emotional, beautiful and perfect it was.
I love everything about this!! What a fabulous treasure to be able to catch up with old friends, recreate some fun memories, and learn even more about each other at this phase of your lives. The doubt and angst, gosh I can feel that myself and it’s mostly certainly true that we all felt that way! This is a great read, Carla, truly enjoyed it!
Michelle!! Thank you so much, it was absolutely a treasure to spend this time with my dear friends.
What incredible memories! I wish all high school reunions were like this! These photos are irreplaceable!
Oh man, they were mostly cell phone snaps too because I forgot my camera!! I kept telling myself “the best camera you have is one that’s with you”. The small intimate group that we had allowed us to really be vulnerable and share. I’ll never forget it.
This is priceless. I love the reconnecting that took place between friends and the ways that you captured perfectly the joy of being together. Relationships captured in photos are priceless!
Thank you so very much, it was truly a moving, life changing and beautiful experience. Richly blessed.
What a fantastic story of an amazing group of ladies, very proud to know all of you! Awesome job all of you involved.
Aw, Grant (Grannie), we’re lucky to count you among our friends, we talked about you too, what an amazing friend you were and are still.
Beautiful. It makes me wish I had known and gone to school with all of you. Being one who always had a very small circle of friends, I envy those that are still very close with many of the people they went to school with. But I guess it’s not the number is it, it’s the quality of those friendships that really matter most.
Thank you Marlene!! We are so blessed to have been able to reconnect and see each other anew as adults without that veil of teenagehood, if that makes sense… I agree with you 100%, my circle is tight and special, and includes these ladies.
brion aubrey…..Mr.A. to some.a to one,and not sure about others, best friend with Mr.A..the other one. Lots of memories here…for sure.
35 years…that is almost as old as I am…wow, doesn’t seem like it does it.
Yes changes…good old David!
Thanks Carla.
Mr. Aubrey!! It was an incredible walk down memory lane with an incredible group of friends, we spent a lot of time in your classroom, I still remember Hunter’s Training class, when you asked us to find another name for animal feces that started with s, ended with t, and was in the manual… So funny, and I found it! SCAT. Thanks for giving so many of us such a solid education, a great start in the world, and most of all, for being easy and approachable and a teacher to remember fondly.
Sounds like it was such an amazing day! Thank you for sharing your memories and now I just might have to go call up some of my old friends and get something set up!
Thank you Brandi! Do it, make that connection!!
Such a joyous and relatable occasion this sharing of old, and the making of new memories among longtime friends! You documented it in photographs and words warmly and beautifully, Carla. And I thank my lovely Katherine, to your fabulous circle, “Kathy”, for sharing your blog with me.
Loretta! Thank you so much for your kind words, I actually have goosebumps reading them, and reliving our weekend. It was truly a joyous occasion, so perfect to reconnect, share memories and make new ones. Kathy, or Katherine, is a beautiful human, and I treasure the connections she’s made between so many of us.
My life has been greatly enriched by this beautiful group of ladies. Thank you, Ladies, and to all of you who have become so special in the past many decades.
Our lives have been greatly enriched by having you as a guide, friend and teacher. xoxo So much love.