In high school, Minh Nguyen wasn’t the socializing type. He was the reserved guy on the sidelines, the guy who helped people with their math homework. Nearly 20 years later, he’s made it his mission to track down fellow graduates of Plano Senior High School’s class of 2005. He drives across Texas or flies to meet classmates wherever they are, and then documents the encounters on his Instagram account. It started with a 2022 social post (“feeling rather nostalgic lately”) but evolved into something more: a cross-country project fueled by curiosity and, beneath it all, a reckoning with his own mortality after being diagnosed with a rare form of diabetes. The author of this piece, Jordan P. Hickey, was one classmate with whom he reconnected. This is a story about nostalgia, human connection, and filling in the blanks of unfinished stories.
When he sat down for one-on-one conversations, his former classmates invariably asked, “Why are you doing this?” In the early days, the question wasn’t an easy one to answer. At that time, he still wasn’t sure what challenges he was facing, and therefore he wasn’t sure how to put the state of his health into words. It seemed too big, too broad even for him to wrap his arms around. But people were patient. They listened and let him say what he needed to say. In time, it became a little easier.
What surprised him was that when he shared his story, many people responded in kind, sharing deeply personal details. Not always, to be sure. Some were content to chat about their children, careers, and whatnot. That was fine. But many seemed to have been waiting for an opportunity to share something that had been weighing on them. Maybe they felt comfortable because they’d known Minh when they were children or because they knew this interaction was a one-off deal. Yes, they might continue to reconnect, but they had their own lives, and it’s hard to keep a relationship close if no external force ties the two people together.
So they told him about their lives. They told him about their failed relationships, their financial troubles, their addictions, their lowest lows, their highest highs, their near-death experiences.
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