Danny ChaiGot together with some jr. high / high school friends tonight. No limit Texas Hold ‘Em. We played by my house rules I mentioned before, and it works pretty good. I think it’s a good way to run a game.
It’s kind of odd hearing about people I haven’t seen since 8th grade. I wonder what they’re up to. I wrote about this before, but a couple years back I saw this girl that I hadn’t seen since 5th grade and our reactions when seeing each other were exactly the same: you’re so tall! But anyway, yeah, I wonder how they turned out.
Anyway, I came across my old junior high’s web site. It’s kinda odd that I still recognize some of the teachers’ names, but a lot of them are gone. Anyway, I felt kind of happy looking at the calendar of events – the music program looks like it’s going strong. Lots of concerts and festivals they go to. No Reno festival, but it looks like they go to some festival in Fullerton. I dunno, that it’s still going strong, that made me happy.
Honestly, when I think about it, if I were to list the top 5 most important moments in my life, being in jazz band in jr. high is up there. Not necessarily a best moment, just an important one. Like, it taught me to love music. Up until that point in my life I played music, was good at it, but didn’t truly love it. Jazz band changed that in a way that’s stuck with me to this day.
The other thing is this. It’s maybe the only time in my life that I reached for something hard, pursued a lofty goal, even if it was a collective thing. I dunno, I’ve been thinking about my life a lot lately and it kind of makes me sick how I always settle, settle, settle, never reach for anything, never take a chance or go out on a limb but always stick with the safer, easier thing. That’s not how I want to live the rest of my life. I dunno, it’s time for something different.