After months of planning and hard work of the organizing committee, headed by Manoela Bosschart and Wilton Branco, the 2016 OLM Alumni Reunion took place on Saturday, October 22, at OLM school grounds, more specifically in the auditorium where Dr. Lyndaker was waiting to greet us all. The auditorium was quaintly decorated, yearbooks were exposed for people to leaf through and videos about OLM were shown all night.

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I have always loved meeting up with my school friends since I studied at OLM from 1st to 12th grade and have only good memories of my times here.  I was sure that this time would not be different and it was not!

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As soon as I walked through the front gate, I bumped into Ms. Daltério, the 5th grade English and Social Studies teacher, and even though I am also part of OLM staff ( ESL/PSL teacher in the OLM Resource Center),  that night I was Ifa,  Class of ’81, and she was Ana Laura,  Class of ‘97. We walked together towards the small crowd that was gathering near the steps of the auditorium, when we separated for a while since we started to meet our classmates.  The hugs and kisses and exclamations went on for some time.

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I went up to the auditorium and greeted Dr. Lyndaker who seemed quite touched and amused by all these adults  acting in quite a childish way, telling stories  about the old times and all the hoaxes and crazy things they had done while  studying  at OLM. And again, that night he was not my boss; he was my principal, the one who has known me since I was 16 years old.  I was a Senior when Dr. Lyndaker became OLM’s Superintendent in 1980 and he made many innovating changes that we, Seniors, witnessed in our last year at OLM.  The best one for us was the privilege of getting a Senior Lounge.  The gang of Class of ’81 has never forgotten that especially because we lost that privilege after the boys were caught doing things they should not have been doing in there.  But that is another hilarious story that would take too much space to tell here!

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Later I went downstairs where I met up with more of my ex-classmates, friends, teachers and we talked about the past, the present and the future… so much to say… that at many moments we were all talking at the same time and the wine and the beer did not make things any calmer! Nevertheless, the chaos, the blathering, the shouting, the jokes, the laughing, the giggles, the smiles… pure bliss! Pity time flew by so fast and soon it was over, but I loved every minute of it and I am sure that everyone else did too!

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Being member of both the OLM Alumni and staff can be sometimes curious. The following Monday,  back to work during this MS/HS  Spirit Week, I was walking down one of the hallways  and saw some students wearing bizarre, funny costumes, squealing  in delight as they galloped down the stairs rushing to their next class. I was ready to call their attention but instead I thought to myself, “What the heck! Leave them alone. After all, I was kind of behaving like that on Saturday. For old times’ sake I will close my eyes just this one time.” I smiled and let them pass without a word.  So, if I were to choose a word to describe the OLM 2016 Reunion, it would be: AWESOME! ! Let there be others soon!

Aoifa Burke (1981)