When we were in high school imagining the future, it was hard to comprehend where we would be in ten years. What kind of jobs would we have? Would we be married with kids? Would we have been sucked back in to our old hometown? All we knew was that graduation was imminent and that we would escape to college and all its freedoms soon. In that strange time of celebrating and saying goodbye to friends we had seen every day, some of my friends flatly stated that they would NEVER attend a high school reunion. Four years was enough, thankyouverymuch, and there was no need to return. But personally, I knew that I would go back, not to brag or boast but to sate my curiosity. I wanted the captions at the end of a high school movie where you learn which high school sweethearts were still together, which classmate became something unexpected or inevitable.
Despite that incredible certainty, that sureness that I would never miss the chance to see old friends (who I surely wouldn’t have gone years and years without seeing) and check up on old classmates, I’m doing homework and writing to you from my couch in Texas instead of going to a Homecoming parade right now. I’ll probably be doing more homework and watching football instead of attending the reunion tomorrow. It’s been four years since I’ve seen any of my high school friends, and before that it was another two or three years. My parents moved away from that town, and even when I have been in the area I haven’t seen anyone because they spread across the country much like I did. The people I want to see the most aren’t making it back for the reunion either, but even though they’re not there without me, I still feel like I’m missing something big. WE should be there, reminiscing and laughing about our 17 year old selves.
I’m sure I could have found a way to be there despite being a busy grad student who’s trying to save money for a big trip next year, but for some reason – for many reasons – I didn’t. So here I am, listening to the Drive-By Truckers sing about Alabama’s problems, and missing it.
Did you / will you go to your reunion? Why?
P.S. The pic is from our senior picnic and includes me, two very good friends, and the casual friend who got us in SO MUCH trouble – anonymized via photoshop)
P.P.S. Why yes, we are wearing flower garlands, thank you for asking.
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October 8, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Booyah
My reunion was last year and I did not go. I just couldn’t see spending the $$ to fly back home to Texas when my family doesn’t live there anymore and all my favorite friends weren’t going anyway. (Favorite friends = my friend Grody and also any guy I made out with after high school who I might want to make out with again).
(Which was really only one guy.)
(So there you go.)
What did you do to get in SO MUCH trouble?? Can’t believe you didn’t tell that story.
October 12, 2010 at 10:54 am
Bookish Bella
Yeah, there are a handful of people I would love to see, but the reunion would have been full of a bunch of people I barely knew. Not worth the airfare when I’m already saving pennies.
The SO MUCH trouble? Thanks to her my parents think I was a far crazier teenager than I really was. The one and only time I lied to them to go to a party (lied = neglected to mention that parents of friend I was spending night with were out of the country), this girl was our DD. Our crappy DD who couldn’t drive sober and who drank and then ran a stop sign and got pulled over by the cops at 2 am. The cops were nice enough to call our parents to come pick us up. There was much yelling and grounding and (I swear) writing of essays.
October 8, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Wendy (The Local Cook)
nope, never have and I’ve been out since 1995. I married (and then 5 years later divorced) my high school sweetheart, so I’d rather not relive those days!
October 12, 2010 at 10:47 am
Bookish Bella
Understandable… I was engaged to my high school sweetheart for a while, but he was a couple years older so no risk of running into him at a reunion.
October 8, 2010 at 8:15 pm
pigstubs
Maybe we could have our OWN reunion sometime. And not necessarily in the home town.
October 12, 2010 at 10:46 am
Bookish Bella
Yes! We definitely should.
October 12, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Meg
With the advent of things like Facebook and social media, I honestly don’t feel as though I’ve ever lost touch with the 500 or so classmates with whom I graduated in 2003! It’s weird, really… I’m “friends” with pretty much everyone I chatted with at 17, and anytime I get the urge to see what they’re doing? Well, I just pull up their profile.
That’s kind of weird and sad, really, and I can’t say I’ve actually talked — like, in person — to any of them in the past few years. I have a few good friends from that time in my life, but for the most part? We’ve all moved on, I guess.
We had a five-year reunion a few years ago at a local bar, but I didn’t go. As you mentioned, all the people I was most interested in seeing weren’t going, so I figured — why bother? Even though I’m still in my hometown!