Chelsea, dear, it's a long way to Boston
But I wanna go...
-- Satchel, "Mr. Pink"

Tomorrow, after work, I board a plane at LAX and travel to a city that I called home for almost 8 years, yet now it seems so far away that it's like I was there a lifetime ago, even though I've only been gone for 6 months. And then on Friday night, I begin the series of events in which I revisit my past.

These three years are reunion years. On Friday and Saturday, I'm going to my summer camp reunion. Then next year, my college reunion, and the year after that, my high school reunion. In some ways, I'm happy that it's starting now, because I'm finally in a place in my life where I can say that I'm proud of where I am. I got away from it all and started over in a field that I love and that even back then, people thought that I'd be involved in. I'm living on my own in Los Angeles, which is really cutting the tether and leaving my ties and my roots behind. I feel good about where I am. And I don't know how many of those losers from my past can say the same.

Having said that, I'm not quite sure why I'm so apprehensive about this trip. I guess it is because I haven't seen these people in so many years and I have no idea what this trip has in store for me, and I wonder what my future reunions will hold as well. But, either way, as one of my best friends told me on Monday night, "it's only a little over 24 hours that you have to spend with these people."

I need to go pack now.