Class Reunions

[MaggieTheCat]

Apparently my graduating class had an informal 5 year reunion a couple years ago. I was not invited, but I heard it was an absolute joke. I am undecided if I will go to my 10 year reunion or not. It's not for a couple years yet, so I have time to decide. My husband's 10 year reunion is this summer, so if we decide to go, I can get sort of an idea of how it goes. We went to different schools, but our hometowns are pretty similar from what I've seen. We were both mostly friends with upperclassmen; when we were seniors, neither of us had many friends because most of them had graduated and we didn't get along well with most of the people in our own class.

Like others have said, it's really up to you. If you're apprehensive about it, then don't go. If I go, it will largely be for the reasons Jester listed: To be kinda evil and rub in peoples' faces how much my life has changed (for the better) and see how miserable they all are. I don't know how healthy that really is, so I may or may not do it.

[Racket_Man]

did not have a 5th year reunion

I went to my 10 year reunion and by then you could at least see the physical changes ie. receeding/balding in the guys, some of the females had let themselves go, etc. but most were nearly still the same in appearence and personality. yeah did the meet and greet thing and "worked' the room a little. OK party. and I looked pretty much the same as I did 10 year prior.

there was a 20th that was not very well publicised (this angered more than a few people) so I did not attend.

Now my 25th year was a bit more interesting. less people showed up (why I have no idea) but some of the more significant no-shows did make a big blip on everyones radar (more about this later). now I am not in the greatest physical shape but I have not let myself go too far (back in HS I was on the tennis team and in fair physical shape). Now in the last 10 years I have let my hair grow to middle of the my back (mostly kept in a ponytail) and grew my facial hair out cut into a nice goatee( in HS I had my hair somewhat short and barely a mustache). that combined with a well taylored suit and turtle neck shirt I looked fantastic (not just my opinion but others said that as well).

two significant things happened that night
First was the looks I was getting from people and the comments they were making in my direction. the comments from my male classmates were along the line of "Man he looks different." but the most interesting comments were from my female classmates. more along the lines of "OMG is THAT RM????? OMG he looks so different so...... different....... Man I would love to have him..../OMG I would totally..... (insert gutter comments here) (and YES I have confirmed these comments were made via several sources including my now Ex-wife).

the second was meeting a ex long-term GF. now the breakup with said ExGF was not that pleasent. for the 10 year reunion we conversed a little but nothing of real substance. at the 25th year she had not really changed much at all but me on the other hand (see above). well I thought I would get meeting ExGF over with and move on. I walked up to her and her husband and said hello while holding my hand out as to shake her hand in a friendly gester. she looked at me, blinked. blinked again. looked me up and down then got the deer in the headlights look (you could almost see her jaw drop). now her hubbie was now standing kind of behind me so I could not see his reaction to this next sequence but my Exwife could. ExGF took one more look at me, looked at my hand and said (and where this came from I have NO IDEA) "OH YOU CAN GIVE ME A HUG!!!!" OK?????? this was sooooo far out of left field I felt as if I were in an Abbott and Costello routine.

so I took step closer and lightly hugged her then turned to her hubbie and said hello to him, then quickly started a conversation. afterward durin dinner my Exwife told me that when ExGF asked me for a hug the husband shot me the ULTIMATE death glare and I should have burst into flames on the spot.

for the rest of the night I just "worked" the room having fun talking to people I had not seen in 15 or 20 years, seeing all of the changes in people and I caught ExGF staring at me several times throughout the night

Gods I would loved to have beena fly on the wall for the post reunion car-ride-home conversation between those two.

as for our 30th someone at the last minute tried to throw something together but it sounded lame. I could not have gone anyway since my Mom was very sick at the time and was being put into a nursing factility and I would rather spend time with her at that time.

If nothing else go and have some fun with it. you really owe nothing to these people anyway. why not have fun. who cares who was the prima bitch or the top jock or the lowly stoners or who was in what clique anymore. just have fun.

what remains is the stupid stuff that you thought you left behind x number of years ago. several of the no-show were over really stupid stuff. like popular teachers who became friends with their students after HS (things like wedding invites, parties, baby showers, backyard BBQs) but yet people showing their true colors if said teacher wanted to come to the reunion (the one controling the reunion said NO for some reason) and a big rift opened up between fractions of the class. I only found out about the split and the nastiness about a year after the reunion

[Flying Grype]

Maybe people can change in five years. BUT: if they have changed, what's it going to be like to hang around them? Are you going to be afraid to talk to them? Will they be afraid to talk to you because they remember how they treated you? Even if they've changed, it doesn't mean that a reunion is going to turn everyone into the best friends that they could have been.

People go to reunions to hang out with people they liked in high school. If you didn't like these kids, and if there's nobody else there you care to see, don't go. It's a waste of time and money.

[Amina516]

I personally wouldnt go to a 5th year (though thats been passed a few years back.). My school didnt even have one actually. My 10th yr reunion should be sometime in 2011, and Ill probably end up going though im not sure why. Im actually surprised with the maturity level a lot of my classmates seemed to gain post high school. Ive had some dealings with people that I grew apart from, on Facebook and its all been really positive. Im actually looking forward to it.

[draftermatt]

I didn't go to my 5 year. Most of the people I've wanted to stay in touch with I have.

Oddly enough, I wouldn't have minded going, until I heard about it.

Apparently, despite being a graduating class of over 500 (biggest ever in the history of that school) they put an ad in the local newspaper (because we all still live in the area and all get that paper right?) advertising it, and it was being held at a run down little bar in the next county.

That had to be the dumbest thing I had ever heard. Most of us heard about it from someone else who had heard about it. I never even saw the ad, just was told from my friend who was told by someone else, etc.

Makes me wonder why we had those elections senior year for "Class Historian" where we were told "They keep track of you so you can get invited to reunions and stuff".

If they have a 10 year I'd like to go (coming up fast) but I'm not holding my breath on it actually happening and being worth a damn.

It'll probably be announced on facebook, since we all have that too.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I wouldn't ever go to a school reunion. I hated most of the girls there, especially the popular clique; tho, I know for a fact that one is morbidly obese and with at least three kids, and one has lost whatever small charms she used to have. Karma bites.

I wouldn't go cuz I don't owe these bitches anything, and I hope I'm above rubbing their noses in the fact that I've moved on and up.

[dalesys]

I'm trying to blackmail persuade my 29yo daughter (who looks 15) to attend her mother's high school's 40th reunion.

They look a lot alike. Primed with a few stories of the good old days as a Terra Nova Tiger, she could pull it off.

Heck, I've even got the body armor rental lined up.

[Shangri-laschild]

It might not be too bad. The question is, what do you gain from going? I've met people from high school who I didn't get along with at times. Some of them are actually very friendly. Sometimes I don't mind, sometimes it throws me because they're very friendly and it's not like we were friends. Just depends but really, but you don't seem to have much on the pro list for going.

[ArenaBoy]

It's your choice really.

There are at the most ten people from my high school I still talk to. Other than that, I told myself that I would not have much to do with the town I grew up in. I don't plan on going to them anyway. I have better things to do.

[Becks]

I skipped the 5 year reunion, and debated a lot about the 10 year, which I did attend.

It was alright.

Most of the people I'd wanted to see didn't appear, but I saw others.

[TheSHAD0W]

I've gotten invitations to class reunions. Ignored them all. My school experience was miserable and I deliberately skipped out on my yearbook photo; you'd think the reunion committee would have taken that as a hint.

[Jester]

Shadow, their job as the reunion committee is to find everyone and invite them to the reunion. It is not to interpret how people are going to feel 5, 10, 20 years down the road based on their last interactions in high school. Your skipping out on the yearbook photo when you were 18 does not mean that ten years later you still want nothing to do with them. In your case it does, of course, but not in every case. Hell, the reunion committee invited me, though they could have thought, "Hey, he only went here his senior year, and most of his friends were juniors and freshmen...he won't want to come." I didn't go, but I thought about it, and I am glad they at least invited me. They probably didn't even know who I was, considering my short tenure there and the fact that I didn't hang out with (a) that crowd or (b) many seniors.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I went to my 10, 20 and 40 year high school reunions.

At the 10 year reunion most of us were just starting to get settled down in our lives. It was interesting to see who had married who, and who hadn’t. To see who had kids, who had the interesting jobs and who were housewives. A lot of the “in crowd”, cheerleaders, jocks, etc., were leading mundane lives locally. Most of the geeks and nerds (the people I hung out with) flew in from far off places for the reunion, and had interesting jobs.

At the 20 year reunion everyone was pretty much established in their life role. Some had grandkids. Some, including me, had different spouses. It was the most interesting reunion. We had name tags with our HS picture on it. Many of the women would see who I was, drag me over to someone else and ask if they knew who I was while covering my name tag. I didn’t look anything like my HS picture.

For some reason I don’t recall I missed the 30 year reunion.

The 40 year reunion was the last one I went to. Everyone had gotten a lot mellower. We had fun comparing notes on where we had gone and what we had done over the years. The sad part was growing list of classmates no longer with us.

Our 50 year reunion will be in 2016. I intend to be there.

[AdminAssistant]

My 10 year is approaching (Class of 2001!). I suppose as the Class Historian, I'm supposed to have a hand in all the planning and stuff, but I don't know if I'll be able to attend. I live in a different state, with little intention of going back, and the reunion will likely clash with preparation for my comprehensive exams. So, I may not even be able to go, much less assist with anything. Honestly, I've really lost touch with most of them...and that doesn't really bother me.

[Kiwi]

You couldn't pay me enough to go back to my highschool.
I hated my "friends" in highschool, they were not friends at all.

The few friends I have kept in touch with keep me updated and facebook has confirmed time and time again WHY I stopped associating with these people in the first place!