Back to the Future

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Did you go to your class reunion? What do you remember? I went to my high school's fortieth...and I was ON A MISSION. I had a (simple expensive) black dress, and simple (expensive) jewelry. (Which I borrowed from my mom.)  But. Weirdo me, unpopular me, misfit me, had a secret. Forty years later: I was happy. There is no more important power.

My dear amazingly talented colleague Sandra Block--whose book WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT I just read and am giving a total standing ovation--had a class reunion situation, too. (She's, um, younger than I am. But these things transcend age.)

And I am giving a copy of Sandra's brand new book to one very very lucky commenter.

SANDRA BLOCK: As my twentieth college reunion approached, I was terrified! 

I still hadn’t quite recovered from my my tenth year reunion experience. My roommates and I had decided to stay in the dorms instead of a hotel. You may think you want to go back to the halcyon days of single beds, paper-thin walls and no air-conditioning, but believe me, you do not. Being sleep-deprived and hung over is not the optimal frame of mind for socialization, especially for an introvert. 

I went to Harvard, for what it’s worth, where students become hedge fund managers upon graduation. So it was easy to compare yourself to your old classmates and come up…lacking.

       

     It took me ten years to get over that reunion.

And now I was looking at number twenty. When I got my Red Book, six months before the reunion, I still wasn't sure I was going. 

The Red Book is a reunion stand-by, a book of reflections from your classmates sent out before the big day. Everyone writes a page about themselves. Sometimes it comes off as a resume, sometimes a poetic reverie. The famous people (yeah, I'm looking at you, Matt Damon) never write anything, not even an address to facilitate stalking. 

            Anyway…that year, I had put something different in the Red Book.

Because, I had a secret. I wasn't actually jealous of all of the gagillionaire hege-fund managers out there. No, I wasn’t. 

I was jealous of the authors. The actors, the sit-com writers, the dancers. Those who had followed their dreams. I’m a neurologist – which is respectable, no doubt. I heal people, I think all day, I make enough money. By all accounts, I done good. But, I wasn't what I really wanted to be.

 So this year, I wrote that down in the Red Book. I said I’ve always wanted to write a book, and I was finally going to do it. 

 Putting my dream on paper did something for me. It made me accountable. It made my dream not just a dream, but a dare. And then, I did it. I didn’t have a book deal, or even an agent, but I was still writing that damn book. That year, my room-mates smartly booked a B & B instead of the dorms. And we had – dare I say it – fun.

 Flash forward five years, to my twenty-fifth reunion last year. A lot had changed. This time, I could proudly put doctor and author in the Red Book. I had three books out, and even signed a copy at Logan airport! (Yes, I accosted and strong-armed a stranger into buying it – but hey, a sale is a sale).

Who knows what the next five years will bring. But this time, I know I’ll be there to find out. Before your next reunion comes up, ask yourself: what will you dare yourself to do?

What will you put down in your own Red Book?

HANK: See what I mean? Fabulous. TRUST ME, it's all about that. What will you put, Reds? And remember, you can win WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT!

           

           

Sandra A. Block   graduated from college at Harvard, then returned to her native land of Buffalo, New York for medical training and never left. She is a practicing neurologist and proud Sabres fan, and lives at home with her husband, two children, and impetuous yellow lab. Little Black Lies is her debut, a finalist in the International Thriller Awards, and The Girl Without a Name and The Secret Room are the other books in the Zoe Goldman series. What Happened That Night is her latest novel, and is in fact DEDICATED TO HER ROOMMATES!

Sandra is also a proud author/member of the Tall Poppy Book Club--which you can join here! (Lots of fun, good stuff...and free books!)