This past weekend, I finally had the chance to meet with three high school friends for a getaway in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. We’ve been attempting to plan this trip since 2019 with our original date and location being October 2020 in Montreal. Suffice it to say, everyone knows what happened in 2020 and so our girls’ trip was pushed back.

And back.

And back.

With one of us living in Los Angeles, one in New York, and one on either side of Pennsylvania, it wasn’t easy to find the right place. Or time. After Covid struck, we ended up with many potential trips booked, then cancelled.

But we finally managed to pull it off. The 26-year mini-reunion. (Ew. How is that possible?)

What ensued was a weekend filled with more laughter than I’ve had in the last ten years. And I have a happy marriage and silly kids. Still. So much laughter. So many stories. So many memories. And…as the title of this post would imply, so many Aperol Spritzes.

I’m reminded of an old Daisy song we were made to sing in the eighties, before we had any idea what the words really meant.

Make new friends,
Keep the old.
One is silver,
And the other is gold.

(PSA: A Daisy is a young girl scout. Daisies come before Brownies and Brownies before a Girl Scout. I never made it past Daisy, mostly because I hated that awful blue smock).

While I understood the poem’s meaning long before this weekend, the last few days are solid, irrefutable proof that every word is true. There’s something to be said for spending time with people who knew you in your truest, most innocent form — the friends who have watched you grow up, who have grown up beside you, who have shared with you the most intimate stories of joy and grief. (Let’s be real. There’s a lot of joy and a lot of grief in high school no matter what decade you attended.)

For a brief moment in time, we were teenagers again. No responsibilities, no reasonable bedtimes, no thoughts of work or families. For one weekend, each of us was stripped down to the core of our being.

It was glorious.

Reader, if you have the time, you should- 

Reader, make the time to connect with old friends. Make the time to remind yourself who you used to be, to find out who you are now, and to realize those two people are not as far apart as you might think…

I promise it’s worth it.

A weekend away keeps the therapist at bay.