Not a Freak Anymore

I am not a young man, but I still think of myself as young and think I look younger than my 72 years. Because of my weight loss surgery, I feel I am in better heath than I have been in many years. I still have the normal aches and pains one would expect when I do something physical hard to do. I have also lost some muscle mass while losing the weight. I can no longer depend on my ability to use my muscles to do as much as I used to a few years ago. Even with the weight I had I was always very 

strong and could just about move mountains.  

I graduated from Puyallup High School in 1960 and then went on to college and started a family. I did not see most of my high school classmates until our 10th year reunion. Looking at the group then we had survived petty well, still a good looking group. We had not lost many to death and did not know of any of our boys who were lost to the war that was going on at the time in the far East. 

In 2010 of course we had our 50th class reunion and as expected we were looking a lot older. I could hardly recognize many who were there and I am sure they could not recognize me either and I had to reintroduce myself to them many times. Of course the thin athletic boy that had lots of hair was now fat and bald so I do not blame them at all. I had tried to lose a little weight before the reunion, and had been able to get a size 48 pants on. They were tight but on. I thought I looked pretty good but of course I was fooling myself. But I was not the only one who had gained a lot of weight and lost their hair. We had also lost a few classmates to death as would be expected but really just a few. 

I had not heard from most of the classmates again from the time except for a few who were my“friends” on Facebook. I found out from one of those friends that a group of people were still meeting once a month at a Puyallup restaurant and kind of having a monthly reunion of sorts. With the prompting of one of these friends, I attended the meetings this past week at Charlies Restaurant in Puyallup. 

After loosing about 150 pounds I had to reintroduce myself again but this time I was one of the thinnest ones there. I did not have to feel embarrassed about my appearance anymore and that was great. I would just sit back and enjoy the company of my classmates without feeling like a freak Actually I think Jackie who went with me and I were the best looking couple there. Probably predigest with that statement but I did enjoy the attention. I over heard one of the guys say how good I looked now to another classmate. I don’t think he knew I could hear his comments. He told the other guy he looks great now but he used to be huge, and that was a true statement but he did not know how huge I had been as he never saw me at my hugest 

Anyway I am so thankful for the surgery and now I feel I can live a normal life and interface with old friends and family without feeling I am the biggest elephant in the room.