I am trying to decide whether I will attend. Because it's complicated. It's always complicated.
I will be in my hometown the week before the reunion. But actually going to the reunion would require me to stay an extra week at my parent's house. On the one hand, more time there could be fun. On the other hand, it will keep me away from my own home and honey for longer than I would like. Of course, on my third alien hand, I could use some of that time to research my novel, which takes place in my hometown.
Then there is the question of whether I even want to go. Normally I am all about building community. I love community. And as a friend told me yesterday, I am a joiner. But are the people I graduated high school with even remotely my community anymore? Part of the problem is that many of my friends were made through sports and therefore my circle was made up of students older and younger than me. They're not included in this reunion, only people from my actual grade.
There was a core group of friends that were in my grade, but we have for the most part not managed to stay in touch. Even that magician of time and connection, Facebook, has not managed to reconnect us all. And I find I am mostly ok with that. If it had been important, wouldn't we have stayed more in touch? Or gotten in touch in the last 30 years?
In the balance toward saying yes to going is that I went to my 10th high school reunion and had a blast. Especially at the beginning when I was chatting with all sorts of people that I hadn't really hung out with in high school. I'm not sure why I didn't go to the 20th, did they even have one? Did I care that I didn't go? No.
That is an overarching question I try to ask myself. Will I regret not going? At this point, the answer seems to be no. To be fair, I don't think I would regret going either. I am sure there will be some wonderful people there. People that I used to know. Names I recognize. Is that enough incentive?
The dress code, however, is enough to kill me: cocktail. I know only enough about cocktail attire to know that I don't have any. So that means shopping, which I hate.
Too many parameters to figure out. Maybe I will let the airline prices decide.
What if you do what your brother did, and use the high school reunion to also have an informal grade-school reunion the same weekend? The 34th reunion? I thought that sounded a lot more fun. I would seriously consider attending a grade-school reunion, if ever there was one. The class size was much smaller, and we were together for 8 years!
ReplyDeleteI did attend my high school's 100th anniversary celebration, which included all years, of course, and it was a blast, as you say. It was more like a BBQ than a cocktail party, which helps. The high school here in the town where I now live has an all-years reunion each year, in the format of a picnic. I think those are a much better idea than the traditional formal.
I learned recently that it is considered the responsibility of the senior class president to organize the reunions. Can that be true? I do not think that they warn you about that when you are running for senior class president!
I've been super bad at keeping in touch but 10, 30 and 50 are "essential." No one cares about formal attire after 30 so you are home free after this one.
ReplyDeleteI had a bad time at my 25th because no one I wanted to talk to was there. But at my 30th I had a really nice time because more people came and more people that I knew well from way back when. So your mileage may vary if that is a factor for you
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