Thursday, March 8, 2007, 10:46 am

Erasing memories...

For the past week or so I've been having these weird dreams.

In these dreams, I'm back in my hometown. I'm with my high school girlfriend, working at my high school job, doing high school things.

But the high school is very different... it is ruined, destroyed.

So, today I had to look something up. I've known this was coming for a couple of years now, but last Thursday it started. My old high school is being torn down.

I guess I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I didn't expect it to affect me like this, but it is depressing me a little bit.

Part of the building is only nineteen years old. Yes, 19.

There is a time capsule in the cornerstone of the building that probably has something I put there. My freshman year of high school, that section was being constructed. At the time, it was state of the art! The building it replaced had existed since the early 1900's... maybe around 1910 or 1920.

I have this passion for buildings anyway, and the older they are, the more character they have and the more passionate I tend to get about them. But this is different.

I guess I have a real problem with throwing away a building that was largely redone only 19 years ago. It seems like such a waste.

While I've thought about this for the last couple of years, I haven't dreamed about it.

Until now.

The halls where many of my "first experiences" happened will soon be gone forever... only to be memories. I should have taken more pictures. I shouldn't have lost my diploma, which had a gorgeous sketch of the high school inside. The first crush, the first kiss, the first fight... all gone. The steam tunnels, egg drops from the roof, the "dead" spots on the basketball court... all gone.

I suppose to some, a lot of demons will be put to rest. Maybe even some of mine.

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