Niles West Reunion

Last night I attended my 30th year reunion with my classmates from Niles West High School at the Renaissance Hotel in Northbrook. It was an exciting night and I got a chance to reunite with many friends I have not seen in 30 years! Many thanks to my friend Greg Sprague and his lovely wife Allison for taking the time to organize this event. We all had a great time!

The photo above is a group photo of my friends from Parkview Junior High in Morton Grove, IL. My family had just moved from Chicago to Morton Grove in time for me to attend Parkview for eighth grade. It was an adjustment period for me moving from the city to the suburbs, but I had great friends to help me along. Many thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome.

In high school, I was one of those kids who just attended school, but didn't really do much else other than hang around with just a handful of friends. I didn't go to any of the school activities, wasn't in school sports and didn't play in the school band. I just went to school, studied hard and that was it.

So I must admit that I wondered if anyone would even remember me at this reunion. Sure, the few friends I hung around with would remember me, but what about the rest?

Well, I was very surprised to find that many people did remember me! In fact, it seemed many already knew what I had done with my life over the past years because they had read about me on Classmates.com! Many people came up to me to ask me what it was like to be a CSI technician and how I was able to transition into photographing weddings! The power of the internet has really had an impact on the world for getting information out there, wouldn't you agree?

How have I changed in all these years? Well, I would say I am more outgoing today than I was back in high school. I think if I were not the way I am today, there would be no way I could be a photographer. I'm not afraid to walk up to a perfect stranger today and start up a conversation. Back in high school, there would be no way I could do that.

So, to all of my former classmates, THANK YOU for making last night a memorable occasion. I had not intended to bring my camera and take any photos, but Greg asked me to do it so we could get some group pictures of our Junior High friends. But seeing how there were so many other junior highs represented at our reunion, how could I not help out taking those photos as well? And no... I was NOT the official photographer at this reunion! Many people asked me that... I was there as one of your classmates to attend the event. But somehow I knew that if I had my camera with me, I would not be able to resist taking photos of all of you all night long! But I did limit myself... had I been there to document the event on an official capacity, I probably would have shot between 600-800 images during the evening! Instead, I just took a handful of snapshots.

I encourage you all to keep checking my blog weekly to see what I'm up to. I update this blog on Mondays and Thursdays (sometimes more...) So by the time we have another reunion, you'll all know what I've been doing!

See you all at the next reunion and thanks for making last night one to remember!

Russ