High School Reunions
We had our tenth last night. I went half out of morbid curiosity and half out of a genuine desire to see what my sort-of-friends (i.e. the people with whom I had a lot of classes and was friendly with within the confines of the school building but never hung out with) had been doing for the past ten years.
Glad I went, but it was a tad surreal. Alcohol (aka social lubricant) was definitely necessary. Only one of my real friends made it, so I spent the evening mostly catching up with the sort-of-friends. A couple work for Eli Lilly. One works behind the scenes at a local TV station. Another is the stay-at-home mom of three. My only guy friend who showed is a programmer. The girl who got knocked up our senior year (She was an honor student! A good girl!) has a second son and works as a nurse.
The plastics got plastered. We met spouses and looked at photos of kids.
A guy who was in my honors classes fondly remembered a project we did together in Sophomore English. Seriously dude! We SO fought during that project. You wouldn't take off your damn baseball cap and totally pissed everyone off.
The weirdest thing was trying to see the eighteen year olds that these people used to be hiding within the twenty-eight year olds that we now are. I did fairly well once they got within about eight feet of me, but a lot of them looked like total strangers from across the room. I spent the better part of three and a half hours trying to put a name to a woman that I spoke to right when I arrived. I finally asked someone, only to find out that she was one of my alto buddies from swing choir. We did a duet together at our senior concert. Ahem. If you're going to cut off all your hair, highlight it and lose over 20 pounds between high school and your class reunion WEAR A DAMN NAME TAG.
I'd say, if you didn't totally hate high school, you should go. I'll be ready to do it again in about ten years.
Glad I went, but it was a tad surreal. Alcohol (aka social lubricant) was definitely necessary. Only one of my real friends made it, so I spent the evening mostly catching up with the sort-of-friends. A couple work for Eli Lilly. One works behind the scenes at a local TV station. Another is the stay-at-home mom of three. My only guy friend who showed is a programmer. The girl who got knocked up our senior year (She was an honor student! A good girl!) has a second son and works as a nurse.
The plastics got plastered. We met spouses and looked at photos of kids.
A guy who was in my honors classes fondly remembered a project we did together in Sophomore English. Seriously dude! We SO fought during that project. You wouldn't take off your damn baseball cap and totally pissed everyone off.
The weirdest thing was trying to see the eighteen year olds that these people used to be hiding within the twenty-eight year olds that we now are. I did fairly well once they got within about eight feet of me, but a lot of them looked like total strangers from across the room. I spent the better part of three and a half hours trying to put a name to a woman that I spoke to right when I arrived. I finally asked someone, only to find out that she was one of my alto buddies from swing choir. We did a duet together at our senior concert. Ahem. If you're going to cut off all your hair, highlight it and lose over 20 pounds between high school and your class reunion WEAR A DAMN NAME TAG.
I'd say, if you didn't totally hate high school, you should go. I'll be ready to do it again in about ten years.