catholic school children know how to party hard

I was a cradle catholic but now do not even associate myself with that religion other than being a fan of the gruesome religious art and architecture of churches. I went to catholic school my whole life. All of it. K-8, high school, and for some reason, chose a catholic university although there wasn't much that screamed "i'm still at a catholic school?!". There's definitely something about going to catholic school most of your life. You hear stories of crazy bible tales, nuns, rules and all sorts of crap. In catholic school, you're taught to be god fearing, and if you sin you must repent or your soul will burn in the pits of hell. I knew going through 9 years at Incarnation that we'd all be a little bit fucked in the head. I think we all knew that. We all formed a bond because it's better to pave your pathway to hell with friends than with stupid people.

I don't think I know many people that keep in touch with elementary school friends. For some reason, my friends and I from elementary school still see each other a few times during the year if not more. In a class of about 30 I think we'd be able to contact most if not all of our former classmates. Personally, I've seen about half of them in the last couple of years and regularly keep in contact with them. Even when we don't see each other that often, when we reconnect, everything falls back into place. I think it was being so close to each other during those formative years coupled with the evils of a catholic education that brought us together.

This weekend I hung out with a few people from my childhood. We graduated 8th grade 13 years ago. Most of them I met nearly 20 years ago so I think it's pretty good that we can keep in touch this long and party as hard as we always do despite failed marriages, kids, and overall insanity. People had little hope for the 8th grade class of 1996. Sure we can party all night with little to no sleep but we've been getting our shit done and for the most part, are doing well. Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, we're still a mess, we probably hate catholicism even more but in the end we've come out helping and understanding each other and have formed ever lasting (so far) bonds. We're like wounded veterans, the scars of battle will still be there but at least we have each other to count on and get through life.