Did you go to your highschool reunion? Why? Or why not?
Mine was cancelled as it should have happened during covid.
I might have gone just to see a few people I enjoyed hanging out with, but lost touch with. And it's okay, life happened and we all moved on to something else.
I still have a few friends from high school I see on a regular basis, so maybe I have actually regular high school reunions?
as a parent of high schoolers myself, I will come across other parents who will say that they tell their kids to enjoy high school because it's going to be the greatest days of their life. I disagree greatly with this perspective, but I think this type of person is who class reunions are for. I did not particularly enjoy high school so I am not seeking to relieve those days and would not go.
I remember back when I was in high school some really old alumni came back for an award and gave a speech. He went on about how these were “the absolute best years of his life” and how we should enjoy them.
The kid next to me was like “That’s depressing as shit. That guys in his 80s, has a family, and this was the best thing he ever experienced? Sounds like his priorities have never been straight.”
Always stuck with me. Was really profound at the time.
I went to my 6 year reunion (they forgot at 5 years) because I loved nearby and thought it would be fun. And I did have fun. It was cool seeing people that I hadn't seen in a while. I skipped the 11 year reunion (Covid delayed it by a year). I moved about 2000 miles away from my hometown, and even though my parents still lived in the area and I could have used it as an excuse to visit them, it just wasn't a huge priority, and I had other trips the same year and didn't want to take more time off work.
I don't know anyone who lives in that area anymore, so don't see myself going to a 16 year reunion (I feel like it's a tradition at this point to do it one year later) when it happens.
It's been over forty years since I graduated, and people organized a few of them since. I went to a 25 year reunion, I think it was. It was strange, really. There were only 110 people in my graduating class, and maybe half or two thirds showed up. I wasn't close to many people, but it was good to catch up a little with some that I liked.
The one thing that made me really glad that I went was that I ended up at a table with a guy who had been kind of a bully generally, though not to me personally. At one point, a guy who had been a quiet/nerdy type came by and said hi to all of us, asked us all what we were doing. When he left, the bully said, "Well he was was nicer to me than I deserved. I made his high school years hell. I don't deserve any kindness from him." He seemed genuinely regretful.
I've thought about that a lot over the years - about how who you are today is going to always be with who you are in the future, even if you change.
I haven't been to the town where I was born for any length of time in decades. I haven't spoken to any of the people I went to school with since I left school. So, no.
I was only half-ass invited to the 10 year. Because someone I knew that I graduated with was talking about it and asked if I was going. I wasn't even invited. From what I gather, it was just thrown together by a few people and they invited basically only people they were friends with back in high school.
20 year from what I gather was even more a pathetic attempt appears it might have been people who still live in that town.
I don't honestly feel like I missed out. To me, not even being invited tells me these people still haven't grown up and are still very much thinking in cliques yet. I haven't seen these people in over 2 decades.
Someone from my old secondary school tried to organise one a few years ago. I figured it might be fun in a cheesy sort of way, even though the only people I'd want to see are the ones I'm still in touch with and would have been going with anyway, and I doubt I'd remember most others at all.
Unfortunately it clashed with an NFL London game I really wanted to go to, and that was always going to win out! No regrets.
I saw an invite for a 10 year, but was like, “Why the fuck would I go to that?” though it might be interesting now I guess. At the time I felt like I had just got out, so it was too soon. However, I’m not on facebook anymore, so if anybody tries putting one together I likely won’t hear about it.
Nobody bothered to organize one after the first 3 years or so. Most people moved away, hardly anyone is in touch anymore. I'm good friends with exactly one person, and loosely connected with one other. Should have been 20 years last year, would actually be curious what happened to some of the folks, but I don't care enough to get involved organizing anything myself as well.
Hell i have no idea if my class even did one. I actively keep in touch with a few people, and I'm in the orbit of a few more, so i doubt i just wouldn't hear about it. Now that i think about it, a lot of people really scattered to the winds, some ended up in Europe, others across the country, maybe we just never had one.
Someone tried to organize one, but it just never happened. The ten-year reunion would have been 2013, Facebook was big, MySpace was still relevant, most people who wanted to keep in touch, kept in touch.
The school was a bit shit anyway, I didn't go to senior prom due to same-sex couples being "banned" (the chaperons at some band related dance literally stood in between my bf and I) and according to people who went, the only decorations were cheap air-filled balloons that didn't reflect the schools colors.
Lame school, social media exists, and the Facebook event site disappeared a few months before it was supposed to be. Yawn.
I went to one of those scammy "cyber" charter schools for high school, and I think it's been shut down since then. Also, halfway through I dropped out to work instead. So even if there were anyone left to put on a reunion, even if I knew where in the world they'd host it... I presumably still wouldn't be invited anyway 😅
I got to see and hang out with enough classmates during university that the change to adulthood was gradually and drifting away makes a reunion far less appealing than a hard end where people go their own ways at the end of high school and don't stay in touch. While I wouldn't mind seeing a few people other than those I stayed in touch with, a brief social gathering where some people want to brag about their successes and others try to put on a positive face for their poor decisions just isn't appealing.
Plus we had 450 in the class and no real class identity so it isn't like there is nostalgia pulling people back. I think a few people tried to organize one around 20 years after, but I didn't recognize anyone planning and the people I still talk to didn't go and we can see each other when we want already.
There's a few people who moved pretty far away I wouldn't mind catching up with, but to be honest we both have had the opportunity to do so and not following through is probably a clue that we have drifted far enough apart that memories are enough.
@Servais No I didn't go, I didn't like 99% of those people when we were in school together, I cannot imagine the intervening 20 or so years would have done much to change that tbh.
I went to one, and it was so disappointing. High school was never a highlight of my life so I do t know what I was expecting, but it was a big round number (20) so I supposed it was the one to try. However the only people who showed up were locals. I remembered a lot more than expected but foind they hadn’t grown or changed in any way. The kid with the mullet who always got high was still wearing a mullet and asked if I wanted to smoke some. My best friend from back then was still a DJ at the community college radio station and admitted he had never been more than 50 miles from home. Etc.
The thing to know about our town was it was a great place to grow up, but everyone’s parents had great job with a huge tech employer who dominated the area. That employer moved out about a few years after I did and nothing ever replaced it. The whole town is grey and faded, a shadow of its former self. Why would anyone stay? I never kept up with anyone but assumed they scattered, like I did
Hell no. There's nobody I want to reconnect with there. Bunch of cliquey Italian girls who married the guy they dated in high school and now have kitchens in their basements.
I would like a very good long look at my ex love of my life though, because he used to be this smart and politically moderate guy, and according to social media has become attached to Qanon,which is super weird for a non American. So I would go if I knew he was going and simply ask him what the hell got into him.