"the best time of our lives"

Last night my mid school/high school friend posted this photo of facebook with the title,

"the best time of our lives." This picture was taken about 10 years ago! wow...has it already been that long since 8th/9th grade?

Most of us in this photo are on facebook, and her post got a great response of about 20 nostalgic and funny comments. I feel asleep last night thinking about where we are now in life, and how we lead such different lives than one another. Am I living the life I thought I would when I was 14? Is Samantha living the life she thought she would be living? Are we happy? Disappointed? Just getting by?

Seeing this picture also made me miss all my friends in the photo, and the times when all we had going on was a Friday night gathering at the mall, or a birthday party at somebody's house where'd we eat pizza, drink soda and prank call the boys we liked.

Today my kindergarten class had a fieldtrip to the museum of Natural History. We have been studying dinosaurs, and the kids were excited to see the giant molds and skeletons. In front of a giant T-Rex foot, one of the moms snapped a photo of eight or nine children. They huddled together, smiled and one of them made a peace sign. I instantly thought back to the facebook photo of my friends and I. Will these kindergartners remember their friends, and their first field trip to see the dinosaurios? Will they label it as the best time of their lives? Los Padillas is a small community. Most of them will grow up together. This is just the beginning of their lives together. I felt excited for them, and hoped one day down the road somebody will pull out that picture and think, "wow, kindergarten was so fun. Those were some of the best times!"