When I was in high school, I was obsessed by Barry Manilow. I had posters and albums, and I even talked my mom into taking a friend and me to a concert in Toledo, Ohio, where we used binoculars to see him way down there on a tiny center stage before the invention of jumbotrons.

Then I grew up, and I changed. I had a number of artists and bands I liked, though I wouldn’t say I was obsessed with any of them. As time went on, I listened to Barry Manilow less and less. Years went by where I didn’t listen to Barry at all.

One year our family went to a waterpark for my husband’s college reunion, and I ran into my high school history teacher who was now a college professor. The first thing he said to me was, “So do you still like Barry Manilow?” I laughed that my high school obsession was so intense that a high school teacher would notice. “He’s OK, but I rarely listen to him anymore,” I told him.

Even though I was thirty years older, my high school teacher assumed that my musical tastes had not changed. In some respects, it’s an assumption we all make. We think that our high school friends are the same people or that the spouse we married thirty years ago is the same person. But the fact is, we are changing. We’re being shaped by our experiences, our interests, and the changing world around us. We are growing, friends, and expecting someone to think exactly as they did as a high school teen, as a 20-something, as a young parent in their 30s, or as a maturing person in their 40s and 50s, negates the wealth of life experiences they have had along the way.

So, I’m sorry, Barry Manilow. You were an important part of my life when I was younger, and I thank you for the memories. But people change, and growth is good.

Photo courtesy of The Photo Queue