This picture was taken in 2003. Four years is not a long time for world politics and global warming, strides in cancer research and understanding the fossil record. Four years is nothing to shake a stick at when you're looking at the big, albeit subjective, picture. It is, however, a very long time when those years encompass the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood.
Most of the six "kids" and single adult initially seen as the focal point of this picture have changed so dramatically since this picture was taken it almost shocks me to recall that there was a time before things are as they are today. Let's begin on the left, rotating clockwise through all seven persons.
This girl was always loud. I distinctly remember one time when we were kids that she was not allowed to come over to play because she would disrupt the quiet order and overthrow the hierarchy otherwise unchallenged in the Kennedy regime. It was no different when we graduated high school and the summer after she sought employment where I had been working for the past two years; her paycheck seemed to be based on hourly wages determined by the sheer volume of her voice when she was on the clock. I once made the grave mistake of going to a party with her ; apparently, beer sparks violent (and violently loud) debate among people of this kind. I drove her drunk and screaming person home, wondering how the hell she'd ever earn the respect she needed from a serious employer to get a job worth all I knew she was capable of achieving.
She is now in the Air Force. Her mother couldn't be more proud.
Moving on to the next person in the picture, a girl sporting a cow bandanna is utterly fascinated by whatever the girl across from her is doing. This person, incidentally, is me. I won't say much for myself; if you've read anything from the beginning, middle, and end of this long autobiography, you can easily see the change for yourself. I will indulge myself for a moment, however, and say that the girl in this picture was afraid of three things particularly: dogs, college, and her own hoo-hah. She is now accustomed to all three.
The next person you see was always a bitch. I haven't seen her since roughly the time this picture was taken. I assume not much has changed.
The woman in the black jacket who almost seems to be in the background has a rather tragic story of change, though her beauty still lives on. Here, you will observe a proud mother of one and a loving and happy wife who makes religion easy to understand. She teaches teens about how God relates to her and how He can relate to them, even if she has to admit her own flaws and shortcomings in doing so. She is in love with her husband and adores her daughter. Everything radiates from her in an aura of confidence and grace.
Four months after the camera clicked, her husband died instantly in a motorcycle accident. She got on with her life, remembering him daily but not letting the loss become a burden. A few months later, she found out she was pregnant and declined to teach religious education, fearing she would set a "bad example" for her students. Through everything, she held her head high and did not relinquish her faith. Today, she is in her second marriage to the father of her second child.
The girl next to this woman in the picture is an old childhood friend of mine - perhaps the closest friend I've ever had. Like me, she grew up in a religious family with one older sister just a block away. She is entirely into her faith and believed in the good of the Southern American lifestyle. Her mother always calls you shug [shuhg] instead of sugar in the thickest Alabama accent imaginable. This girl believes in the FFA, Jesus, and cole slaw.
Today, she is five months pregnant with her first son as a result of a young marriage gone sour. Her belly is beautiful.
The boy directly to her left is someone I've known since he was knee-high. Our families were always close. He, being a few years younger than me and perhaps rightly believing that girls are gross, always preferred to hang out with "the dads" whenever our families would get together, while I'd play with his littlesister and Erin would gossip with his older sister. He'd always been a cute little kid, but always that: a kid.
This picture was taken when he was a teenager, which was weird enough. Now he is in his first year of college. He's old enough that his little sister will have her driver's license this spring.
The last girl on the right is the most easily recognizable person in this picture. I will opt to bite my tongue and simply comment on the staying, sexualizing power some boys have on the girls they date.
I find it remarkable when looking back at old pictures how time can distort your reaction. Four years ago, this was just another picture taken in the airport when we had the Layover of Doom in Atlanta. Four years ago, this was just another picture from the National Catholic Youth Convention of 2003. Four years ago, these were just some people I was friends with or knew in passing.
Today, they are all their own persons. Today, they are all adults with their own stories, perhaps with the exception of that one bitchy girl.
