Monday…the day after I didn’t watch the Oscars. It was either the red carpet being streamed live at 230AM or me, sleeping on my blue sheets? I went for the blue sheets and would like to thank the academy for creating a show that fueled a fabulous twitter stream that I dove into with my morning coffee…at 6AM.
I digress. It’s Monday and so Stasha says, make a list! Our prompt this week comes from Rachel, at Totally Ovar It. Any woman who can write about going menopostal is a woman after my own heart, and she wants to know our top ten pros/cons for going to our class reunion.
The last time I went to a class reunion was a long-ass time ago and some things happened there that were waaay too similar to things that happened in high school. There may or may not have been inappropriate necking (no, I was not at the time married and neither was the person with whom I may or may not have been making out), there was certainly a lot of drinking, and there were other things that are a tad blurry around the edges.
This reunion will be THIRTY. That makes me wonder how it is that I can’t remember the name of the movie I really liked last year with that one actor, you know the one from that show, with that girl? But thirty-some years later, I can tell you exactly who sat in front of me in third-year Latin and the name of the girl who shoved me in the lunch room on the first day of school my freshman year.
High school was, for me, a pretty standard litany of midwestern misery and woe. I spent two years wanting to be “in” with the kids I thought were cool and once I found myself on the periphery of that “cool” crowd, I spent the next two years wondering how the hell I was going to escape. College couldn’t come fast enough, as far as I was concerned.
So going back to a reunion? Hmm. I’ve actually been thinking about it, because it’s entirely likely that we will be in the States this summer, so theoretically, it’s possible. Theoretically. Or maybe I should schedule a root canal instead.
I should go to the reunion, for reasons both profound and shallow:
1. Aren’t you curious about what happened to all those people?
2. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that the people you were jealous of in high school maybe haven’t amounted to much?
3. Isn’t it time to put the ghosts of high school to rest, for god’s sake?
4. You have better hair now than you did then.
5. You’d finally have the guts to tell the kids who make racist, sexist, homophobic jokes to shut the fuck up, which you never could bring yourself to do in high school.
I should stay the hell away from the reunion, for reasons both profound and shallow:
1. I had a better body in high school than I did now.
2. There are way too many people from my high school who make jokes on FB about hating Obama, with “reasons” funneled directly from Fox News.
3. I was mostly miserable around these people in high school, so why go back?
4. The ghosts of high school make gorgeous fodder for novels, so don’t lay those ghosts to rest, use them!
5. The people I really cared about from high school (approximately 2.7 people) probably won’t go, so I’d end up standing by the punchbowl wishing I were anywhere but here. Which is how I spent most of high school.
I’d say the balance seems pretty firmly to tip in the direction of stay the hell away. I think instead, I’ll just go visit my mom and we can cackle together over my senior yearbook. Maybe I’ll feather my hair for the occasion.
This is relevant to me this year because it is my 50th!! One of the girls who is organizing mine gave the best, maybe the only, reason to go:
We are dying at an amazing rate. It is now or never.
Don’t I want to join the survivors?
wow. that’s a pretty draconian line of reasoning – and uncannily accurate, too, in that a girl who was a friend of mine in HS just died in her sleep a few weeks ago. eek. So maybe I *will* go. But reluctantly. And with a chip on my shoulder…
Reunion or root canal? both painful and start with r. Coincidence?
Great post on this one, I really enjoyed reading it. “I was mostly miserable around these people in high school, so why go back?” – my thoughts exactly! Haha, I’m so glad I’m not the only one. Who needs reunions now that we have Facebook anyway? I say stay home or do something fun with nice people you love and enjoy 🙂
Gosh, I thought 20 years was a long time. How could you possibly be coming up on 30?? Oh how time marches…
I totally feel you on not going.
Hmm, re. #3 – I think there’s something about high school and our adolescent brain development tied to our hormones and emotions that makes it somehow never really, truly possible to “get over” and move on, from there – in a way – you know?
I’m with you on the cliche’d misery/woe piece – I hated HS. The hardest part for me going back is that I’m the only one who did, it seems. Everyone else loved it. Loved this post. (-:
Great post. I had my first root canal this year and they are not as bad as I thought. But I am sure high school reunion would be. I say feather that hair and watch CNN with mom!
I think staying away from reunions is the way to go. The best way to be “over” it is to avoid it. lol
Who needs a reunion? Between facebook and good town gossip, I’ve been filled in enough! I say a night with mommy & the yearbook sounds like the way to go!
Haha…I think I’m leaning toward not going to a class reunion also. It WOULD be really nice to tell certain people to stfu though 😉
There is no way its almost your 30th! With facebook n ow you can always look up the people you want to. Or delete the people you don’t want to know about
Going because you have better hair than in high school is an excellent reason to go:)
I recently skipped my 25th – mostly because I was slightly bored at my 20th (it was a lot of small talk about jobs and kids). The people who went to the 25th claimed it was a lot of fun, and judging from all the facebook pictures, it did look festive. It’s possible that with the rise of facebook, people don’t need to make small talk anymore because all that info is out there already. Now they could just have fun.
Oooh – number #5! A very tempting reason to go (which I will never go). Fun list. Cathartic too, it seems?
Oh the joy of having the inner strength to tell people off. I have to say, that possibility is a VERY strong draw. Does that make me a petty person? I wonder…
i say reunion decisions are best left to the last minute. i went to one of mine – which was plenty – but found out three people i actually liked but hadn’t stayed in touch with would be there so i decided at the last moment to go and we had a blast!
I really enjoyed my college 25th, although on balance I’m not sure it was psychically good for me. Hmm, so those cancel out. I also think you look awesome. The outlines of your life are also very cool. (I think your life is probably actually cool, but I’m pointing to the outlines because that’s what people will see.) Maybe you will inspire someone not to tell their 10 year old daughter to be more normal? Actually, I don’t think I can give you a straight-faced “social action” reason for going. I will probably go to mine, and I suppose it is in part because I also have better hair now than I did in high school!