Some of you follow me on facebook, and I thank you for that! For those of you that do you will have noticed that I had my 15 year high school class reunion this past weekend. I helped to plan the 10 year and always enjoy getting together with my classmates, so I was game. I have to say that I was not completely sure what to expect as this reunion was much more informal than our 10 year, being at a bar & grill, but I went anyway.
The event was completely marketed through facebook which I thought was interesting as out of a class of 400+ there is maybe half of our class on facebook, so it definitely is a way to get the word out. I don;t know whether or not the other half of the class was contacted as I did not plan, but we ended up having around maybe 50 people in attendance at this reunion, and many had also attended the 10 year as well, so maybe the other half of the class does not want to attend reunions, who knows?
Well, the event started at 7PM and when we arrived (around 7:20), there were a handful of people there. This remained to be the case until around 8:45 or 9PM when a number of other people started showing up. When we arrived we were surprised to find that there was another reunion happening on the other side of the establishment and this was well attended. It was hard to find our group as there was no sign and one of our classmates ended up being the designated spotter and ended up getting up whenever she thought she saw another person from our class. We had a few tables on one side of the restaurant and as people left we grabbed a few more.
Around 9PM when a larger number of graduates showed up I noticed them heading up to the bar area. This is where they stayed for the entire night. As more came, more went up there even though they were invited over to where there were other graduates sitting. What I ended up seeing was some of the old high school cliques reforming and people that talked to and hung out with each other back then continued to do so after 15 years.
One of my classmates said it best in a Facebook post after the event:
I’m sure last night brought back many feelings, both good and not so good, but,
if you went, you probably went home happy that you did come out. As I walked the
bar (I got accused of working the room on many occasions), I heard people say,
“Why are people on one side and not over here”, etc. Well, there are many
reasons for that dilemma . My thought on the matter is that last night was about
friends as well as reconnecting and some people have a comfort zone that they do
not want to leave. There is nothing wrong with having a zone and we all have
them. All in all, I wish I had talked to more people but had a great time
nonetheless.
Another friend posted the following:
I realized nothing changes after high school. The nice people are still nice… and the not so nice people are well… the same. Glad to see all the nice, genuine people at the get-together.
I guess for me I had hoped that after 15 years some of the cliques would have been able to mingle with others instead of staying separate. There were times in the night when I ventured forward to interact (as I am an extrovert) with the folks by the bar, and I had some nice conversations with a few of the people. Some other conversations were surface in nature (which is fine), there were many other people who did not even take the time to say hello.
All-in-all I had a good time and in looking back after a few days, wish that I had spent more time talking to the people that were chatting with me instead of trying to walk the room and talk to many people, but alas, such was not the case. I will still plan on attending a twenty year reunion as I do enjoy seeing everyone (if one is planned).
I can only hope that as we continue to get older that people can break free of the past and move into the future toward accepting all and truly getting to know the wonderful, remarkable, strong, vibrant people we have throughout our graduating class because they do exist and they are worth knowing.
Here’s look forward to our 20th reunion!
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Love the writeup. And all is true what you said… especially that quote from your second friend ((wink)). I was glad to see the people whose friendship I valued in HS. And treasured my conversations with you the most. I am so fortunate to have made friends with you in HS and that we've made efforts to stay in touch.
Chris, Was nice to see you at the reunion. I am always pleasantly surprised to find out how small our world really is. Its amazing that we were so close at WMU, were both RAs, both actively involved with campus activities, and never bumped into each other there. Well, I am glad we finally did bump into each other again. I wish I had been more social in high school, perhaps I would have had more friends to share my life with over the years. Reunions are good for reminising and reflection, but I personally like to focus on today and who I am right now. Its the present moment which matters the most, as we are here and now, not then or when.
I enjoy your blog and will continue to read on. Please, keep in touch. The years have brought you to a wonderful place today. Your light shines out in everything you do.
Sincerely,
Caroline (Cotter) Lang
I'm fascinated by this post because my 20-year HS reunion just wrapped a couple months ago. We had a great time, but it was marred right at the end by a guy (drunk) acting like an idiot and embarrassing my wife and me. It was especially frustrating because we (and our son) had sat with him and his children while eating lunch at the family picnic earlier that day. The cliques weren't terribly apparent until later that night, when the drinkers and smokers continued after most had left.
Like one of your friends said, I'm glad I went, even though there were memories both good and bad.