Thursday, March 06, 2008

high school reunion blues

my 10 year high school reunion is coming up on may 31. i did not attend my 5 year reunion. i have mixed emotions about this subject. about a year ago i was sort of excited. the thought of getting together with people i used to hang out with was appealing. about a month ago i made the realization that the thought is a bit appalling. i have had very minimal contact the my non-church high school friends. i have reconnected with a few on facebook and i have felt very content with that extent of friendship renewal. chit chatting with (probably drunk) strangers holds limited appeal for me.
pros for attending the reunion-
1. it is at royals stadium. there should be a fireworks display.
2. the weather should be pleasant.
3. i will probably get a new outfit.
4. i will get to see how people turned out. do we have any criminals in the bunch?
5.?

cons-
1. the person that i used to be 10 years ago is the same person that i am now. i really don't think that i have changed much. i think the biggest change is that i am very publicly proud of who i am now whereas before i felt secretly proud of who i was. insecurities put such a damper on the whole high school experience for me. everyone experienced the sheep mentality of high school. don't deny it. i often did my own thing, but still feared public ridicule and scorn from my classmates. ridicule and scorn don't bother me much now. i am confident in who i am. i just don't want to waste my time dealing with the people that revert back to their high school social roles as soon as they are around their former classmates.

what are all y'alls thoughts? are you going to your reunion? would you go if the opportunity presented itself? have you already been? what were your experiences?

6 comments:

lrbodine said...

Obviously mine is coming up this year also. In August. For me - I don't have a huge desire to go anyway. I am not the same person I was in high school - so in that respect it would be fun to show people that I probably turned out a lot cuter than I was back then! lol. For the most part - I'm in contact with my true friends from high school already and don't really feel the need to watch everyone else get drunk.

Yes - part of me is curious to see what happened to people! But overall - I just don't care enough. Most days I would like to forget high school happened.

I do think a BYU Freshman Year 10 Year Reunion would fabulous though! A chance to meet everyone's spouses and kids. I feel like that's when I really started to figure out who I was and it defines me more than high school did.

Will and Natalie Giddens said...

What a timely post since I was just discussing this very subject today! I have absolutely no desire to go to my 10 year reunion. For most of the reasons you mentioned. I HATE how people revert back to their high school roles as soon as they're around other folks they went to high school with. And like you, I'm back in contact with a handful through Facebook and that's good enough for me.

Will's reunion is this summer as well and he has a buddy who is DYING for him to show up. Will, like you and me, just doesn't see the point in going. You wouldn't believe how offended his friend became when Will told him he wasn't going! Will finally had to tell his pal that he'd "think about it" just to get the guy to drop it.

So it got me wondering if this is more a Mormon thing, that our lives naturally take a different path from those we went to high school with (at least in sparsely populated LDS areas. Who knows? Maybe folks who went to HS in Utah and Idaho can't wait to go to their reunions?), so that we simply lose desire to associate with people who had so little to do with defining who we really are? From conversations I've had, most of my LDS friends found they discovered more about themselves in college or on missions, not in high school.

But back to your post, DON'T GO! It's lame. But totally get a new outfit anyway! :-)

Rachel said...

Well seeing as how your reunion is my reunion and I haven't gotten any notice of it, and I will be too pregnant to think of getting on a plane (if it is before July) you MUST go to...
1- return and report, with pictures
2-show off yourself
3-show off your wonderful successful husband
4-get a ton of hilarious blog material.

Just think- you can go at a minimal expense and without much inconvenience,and you can always leave after 20 minutes and watch the fireworks from a distance.

All that said, I am not sure what I would do if I were you. I feel I am very different than how I was in high school, but don't feel the need to convince anyone of that. I don't know. I do wish you would go though, just so I can hear your take on it!

Nicole Bolinger said...

Well, mine 10 year reunion was 2 years ago...Dang I feel old! ;) Anyway, I enjoyed seeing everyone and am glad I went.

Some people may resort back to HS but I must say we were all a bunch of adults reflecting on the way we were and happy for one another. It surprised me how many people were excited to see me as I was to them. I was the only member of the church in my class and I didn't feel like everyone was getting drunk. I am sure they saved that for much later!!

Anyway, I think you would have no regrets in going but you could possibly regret not going!! Whether you think you've changed or not, you have; and a reunion will show you how much (in a good way)!

There's something about going back in time for a couple hours that makes you appreciate where you are in life now!

Caroline said...

My 10 year was this past summer. I did not attend. My only excuse was that I did not hear about it until late. I never received any information about it and I guess that just made me kinda bitter. It was like they picked and chose who they wanted to invite. From what I hear I didn't miss out on much. If I were still friends with a big group from HS I think it would have been fun to go and hang out-but I'm not. So, I really didn't feel like going and spending $50.00 to sit and stare at people! I agree that you should go if for no other reason to make a funny blog post!

Andrea, Mrs. said...

My reunion was last year. I went. I was afraid that it was going to be like high school--which wasn't necessarily a good thing for me.

I, like Wade, Nicole, and Nora said, was really impressed with how the people all acted at the reunion. Most everyone acted like "adults" and were very kind and gracious. It was pretty great.

True, there were a few people who showed up to be knot-heads. But, for the most part, I'd say the vast majority of us that showed up were glad we went.

Oh, and I got nominated to be in charge of the next reunion, in 2017.

So--did you go? How was it?