Here’s an easy way to look 38 years younger
October 3, 2014 • 52 Comments • Posted in blindness, public speaking, visiting schoolsMy first high school reunion — the 10-year one — happened right after I lost my sight. I didn’t go.
I haven’t been to any since then, either. Friends and family members who go to high school reunions tell me it’s hard to recognize old friends when you can see them. Blind at a high school reunion? I’d feel like I was a punchline.
I was a scrawny girl in my teens, and I wore overalls nearly every day. I hoped they’d camouflage the shapeless undeveloped girl hiding underneath. Wire-rim glasses with octagon frames helped me see where I was going, and braces did their best to straighten my teeth. I never had a boyfriend, no one asked me to prom, and I was just unsophisticated and inexperienced enough to think of those four years as fun.
Know what? I still do. I had a ball during my time at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Ill., and many of my closest friends today are kids I met there.
Few of us did anything you’d call admirable, though, and when Mike first read me a letter saying I’d been selected one of York’s “distinguished alumni” I thought it was a mistake. When he got to the part that said the award was called “Dukes of Distinction” I dismissed it as something silly.
I was wrong on both counts.
The Dukes of Distinction award ceremony is an annual grand affair with a string orchestra (York students, of course!) and this year it will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday night, Nov. 6 at York Community High School, 355 W. St. Charles Road in Elmhurst. Two of the 2014 honorees will be awarded Posthumously: Dr. Martin Stoker (Class of 1939) worked with patients in Elmhurst for 48 years, and Joe Vanek (Class of 2003) is a veteran who died in Iraq in 2007 and was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. The others:
- Dr. Robert T. Chen (Class of 1973) is a medical researcher working on the AIDS vaccine at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
- John Coughlan (Class of 1960) is a retired college coach who was once named NCAA National Indoor Coach of the Year.
- Gary Rydstrom (Class of 1977) is a sound engineer who works at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker and has won seven Academy Awards for Sound and Sound Editing.
- Kathleen Sherman (Class of 1970) is a real-live singing nun who is committed to working for non-violence, especially in Chicago
And then, me. Maybe it was a mistake after all. Or maybe The Dukes of Distinction judge loves dogs. But hey, however it happened, I’m in!
They’re serving free cake and beverages at the ceremony, Whitney and I honest-to-goodness get to walk on a red carpet, and event organizers tell me Les Zunkel (the longtime colorful director of York’s musicals) will be on hand as “stage manager” to guarantee no speech lasts longer than three minutes. I especially look forward to meeting these other honorees — we’re returning to York the next morning to talk with students while class is in session.
So mark your calendars for Thursday, November 6 — the ceremony takes place in a room at York High called the York Commons, described to me as “a beautiful indoor 2-story atrium area that you may remember as the outdoor courtyard.” It’s free, no need to make reservations, you don’t have to be a York graduate to attend, the public is welcome, doors open at 7:00 and the ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m. — let’s make it a mini-reunion! Just remember to tell this Duke of Distinction who you are when you come up to say hello. In exchange, I promise I’ll picture you the way you looked 38 years ago.
You can link to Elmhurst Community Unit School District’s web site for longer bios of this year’s Dukes of Distinction winners. You’ll find photos there, too, in case one of the other DODs has a name that sounds familiar…