Come Together
August 21, 2007
Filed under Buddies, Dear Abby, Freaks and Geeks, Recreational Use, School Days, Sociopath, Who Cares
I have been thinking about high school all morning. I think it was prompted by Caryn’s post about reunions.
Neither Mr. Pants or I went to our ten year reunion. Frankly, there was really no one we were interested in seeing. We both still keep in touch with a couple of great high school people, and we were convinced that anyone else who we might be interested in catching up with would also be the sorts who didn’t show up.
My reunion was at a bar, which I just think is sort of tacky. I saw the pictures, and I was right. For the most part, no one I have any particular urge to see was there. Almost everyone who went to the reunion was someone I barely knew, if at all, in high school and who I have had zero contact with since then. Besides, they played flip cup… Call me”old,” but I just don’t think drinking games are the order of the day anymore. Come on people, we’re pushing thirty!
Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t go to this one, but now I am wondering if I will ever go to a reunion. Maybe 15 or 20 will be good ones, where people are too old for drinking games at bars? Am I hoping too much? Do I ever want to go to a reunion?
Has anyone ever gone to one, in a situation where high school was not SUPER AWESOME for you, and actually had fun?
I didn’t go to my 5 year high school reunion for the same reasons, it was at a bar and pretty much everyone I cared about I already kept in touch with anyway. I hear stories that everyone just got wasted and it was a “crazy” night, but I really don’t think that I missed out on anything special. I’m going to my college homecoming this year though which I know will be super fun!!
High school for me was pretty rough. I was the fat kid- almost everyone but my close group of friends was mean to me and made fun of me.
I struggled with whether or not to go to my reunion. At first I wanted to go because I was happy and successful and wanted to show everyone that they hadn’t broken me. But then I realized that that was the only reason I wanted to go, and that was the sort of petty behavior that I was supposed to have grown out of. I wasn’t going to go, but someone on the reunion committee called my parents’ house looking for me, and my mom talked me into going (and she paid for my ticket because I said I didn’t want to spend $55 on something I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to enjoy). But I went and people actually apologized to me, and I ended up talking to way more people than I thought I would.
I don’t want to write a book here, but you can read about it if you’re interested:
Part 1: http://twitterpated.org/archives/000316.html
Part 2:
http://twitterpated.org/archives/000317.html
See, a few years ago, I really wanted to go… assuming I’d be married and fabulous (and I am. heh)… just so I could go rub it in people’s faces. But now that I am married and happy…. I don’t give a sh** if people from high school know about it.
Maybe I’ll consider my 20 year reunion when — like you said — it’ll be less about “look what I’ve got” and drinking…
Though…. I am a little interested in James’ reunion… because I only met him at the tail end of our senior year… and I’d be kinda interested to see that part of his life, you know? But he feels the same about his reunion as I do about mine. heh.
I have the same feelings about reunions. My 10 year is next spring and I’m contemplating if I should go or not. Between MySpace and Facebook, I’ve found almost anyone I care to find. *shrug* Be it vain but one of the only reasons I want to go is because I look completely different now.
I don’t understand why the 10 year reunions are in bars. *scratches head* It seems so… high school. Heh.
I went to my ten-year. It was lame, lame, lame. It was held at a bar (a Black Angus no less!). Just like you said, all the people I didn’t know showed up, and none of the people I cared about were there. I didn’t bother to go to my 20-year this summer. I heard it was lightly attended, anyway. I am still in touch with the people who matter. You were so right-on with this post…
My hubby just had his reunion and we didn’t go. There was a part of him that did want to go, but not enough to spend 60 dollars per person on dinner at the country club. The country club was not even built until long after his high school days and this is a very small RURAL town and it just seemed a little ridiculous and pretentious, not to mention this is an area where 60 dollars is no joke. Then..the “family fun” picnic day was 10 per person, which wouldn’t seem bad, but you had to bring your own drinks (not even soda or water bottles provided) and it was insanely far away from where we live (the same town he went to HS in)..it just seemed really ridiculous. Why all the hoops and barrels especially when we live in OREGON where trees and parks are abundant.
I probably will not go to my 10 year reunion, and maybe my opinion will change for 15 or 20, but I doubt it. My school had over 2 thousand students and so you were basically just a number. It was hard to be friends with people that you didn’t have a lot of classes with because it as just so crowded and odd..it was a very weird dynamic. Being a jock or in student council did not lead to popularity..the place was so huge there really was no one that “ruled the school.” I also agree that with things like myspace and facebook we can see what our classmates are doing that we cared about and let the others remain in our memories.
I went to school in Asia, so I couldn’t go to my high school reunion or my college reunion. Consequently, I’m always wondering where my high school sweetheart is now and whatever happened to the girl I had a crush on in college.
I think it’s all a show to see how everybody turned out. People who wanted to find me have found me and vice versa. The rest? Who gives a damn. High school sucked. And WHY is that a barometer for anything in life? Let it go, people. I find the people who really enjoy reunions like living in the past. That’s just not me.