chiefs drive miss darby, you can too

Tummy aches and waves of nausea, that was always my reaction to any reminder of Chamberlain High School and the time I spent there over twenty years ago. Although my memories are mostly positive and my closest friendships formed in its halls, I’d moved on and put those big hair years behind me.

Then something strange happened.

After two decades away from the nonsense, nostalgia started to creep in. Whether we’re talking about the music (New Order kicked ass) or movies (who didn’t relate to one of the characters in Breakfast Club?), we eventually started to forget the bad and focus on the good instead.

It also doesn’t hurt to run into the Prom King at Publix, his hairline almost completely receded and working on his fourth marriage. He’s more humble and friendlier too. We laugh about Mrs. Barnes, a favorite teacher long since retired, and laugh over mutual memories.

Suddenly, high school wasn’t so bad.

Then tragedy strikes and you realize you have a lot more in common with these people than you ever realized.

Anyone who went to Chamberlain from 1985-1989 remembers Darby Bissett Steadman. Now a mother of two and diagnosed with Stage Four breast cancer, Darby has been participating in clinical trials designed to develop a breast cancer vaccine. Darby also started a foundation, Driving Miss Darby, to help women pay for the expense of participating in such trials. Through the miracle of social networking sites like Facebook, my old high school classmates, the good, the bad, and the ugly are coming together to raise money for The Driving Miss Darby Foundation.

Download the forms here and send in your donations as soon as possible.

If you’ve been affected by breast cancer, or simply want to help those who are working toward a cure, brave women who are using their bodies to save lives, you can participate. You don’t have to be a CHS graduate or golf lover, everyone is welcome.

Yes, I finally learned how to style my hair. I look better than I did as a teenager. Still, I won’t pretend I’m not nervous about facing my past and old acquaintances who remember me from a time I’d sometimes like to forget.

But even those of us who moved on should look back every once in a while and giggle. It’s good for the soul.

Join us and you can laugh as well. And maybe we can help make this disease disappear for your daughter, granddaughter, or favorite niece. So she, too, can get to twenty years past high school, look back, and laugh.