Barú and the CB Class of 86’
The Colombia Collection, Part B
This year marks 40 years since I graduated high school, though not with this group. I only spent four years with them: sixth through ninth grade, before finishing out my last years somewhere else. Those four years happened to be some of the hardest ones for growing up, and for me they were harder still. I had just moved from Bogotá to Cali because my father had died. I was shy, grieving, not fitting in, carrying insecurities I didn’t have words for yet. I never gave myself the chance to really be known by these kids, or to know them. Most of them had already been growing up together for years, and they kept growing together straight through to graduation. A few others joined after I’d already left. Those last years, tenth through twelfth grade, are where so many of the real bonds get formed. I missed all of that with them.
Still, I always loved that school. And there were people from those years I remembered with real happiness, even without the closeness.
So when they reached out to celebrate 40 years since their graduation, part of it a trip to Barú, a stunning place close to Cartagena, and part of it a celebration back at the school in Cali, I felt something close to honored. This wasn’t only a chance to meet them as who they are now. It was a chance for me to show up without the entanglements that had kept me a little stuck back then. Something in me knew, intuitively, that this would be fun… and meaningful. Reconnecting, connecting for the first time really, either way, I knew I’d enjoy it. Authentic connection is something I love, and this trip was built for exactly that.
I practiced being present. I let myself enjoy the beauty of the hotel, the views, the days under the sun, laughing, joking, having real conversations with different people throughout the group. I practiced something I’ve come to know is one of my gifts: feeling people’s energy before I know their story. I was never wrong, approaching each person that way. I’m not sure this belongs in the piece, but it happened, and it was amusing more than once.
My heart was open the whole time, and it showed, in the conversations, the ease, the beauty of the place, and a real sense of gratitude just for getting to spend that time with them. That feeling carried straight through to the 40-year celebration back at the school in Cali, where some people who hadn’t made it to Barú showed up too. I was just as happy to see them. I hope to stay in touch, with all of them, or with however many of these connections keep evolving on their own.
