Did you go back to any of your high school reunions?

[kasuo]

The years have gone by rather quickly and I find myself approaching my 10-year high school reunion in a few years. So I wonder how many of you attended your reunion and how did it go? Is it anything like what you see on movies/TV (sans the zaniness or maybe not..)?

[Eve]

I went to my 20th high school reunion. It was in-teresting.

[Legomancer]

Nope. I didn't care about most of those people when I was in school with them, and I care even less about them now.

[Barbarian]

I've been out of high school for 13 years. My brothers and sister attended the same school after me.

We've never heard of any reunions at the school...

[Hello Again]

I went to my 5-year and had a really good time. Saw a bunch of old friends, a hell of a lot more people I "sorta knew." (my graduating class was over 900). I was able to get back in touch with a few people that I hadn't ment to lose touch with. It wasn't anything like in movies, in the sense that it wasn't held at a gymnasium, no cheesy band, etc. We had the upstairs of an Italian restaurant, and had a pretty good dinner. Only a couple people got completely trashed.

A few people were "just like they always were, only more so," and others had changed A LOT. I am planning on attending my 10-year (this year) if at all possible.

[RealityChuck]

Sure. Tenth and 20th. (Couldn't make the 30th because of a conflict.)

Had a good time each time (the second was very poorly organized, though).

[bayonet1976]

Been to my 10th and 20th, and to my wife's 10th. Hers was better, and much better attended. But all in all it was a couple of fun weekends.

[Alto]

The invitation to my 10th reunion promised that it would be "the best damn time you've ever had in your whole life." So I didn't go--I don't want to hang out with people for whom a 10th high school reunion is the high point of life.

[CaptMurdock]

Oh, suuurrrre. :rolleyes: I'm going to shell out $80 a plate to sit in a room with a bunch of people who didn't want to give me the time of day twenty years ago? Yah, right.

Of my graduating class of (500? 600?) I can think of maybe four or five people I might actually want to talk to. Easier just to talk them down and surprise them with a phone call.

[Da_Bartender]

Only being out of highschool for not even a whole year yet I can't say that I've been to a reunion, but I have every intention of going to my grad reunion and the year after that, I got caught in the double cohort (Ontario thing)

[Darkrabbit]

I can never think of a reason to go other than 'the spectacle' it would produce. I see all of my high school friends each time I visit my hometown (my parents still live there) so a high school reunion is a meeting of strangers to me; I never associated with these people. My 20th is coming up in 2006, I don't think I'll be going to it.

[constantine]

I went to my 10th reunion in 1995). It was weird but I'm glad I did it.

I was nervous about going because:

(1) I always felt kind of out of step with most people in my high school. I never really got picked on or anything, but was basically the smart kid who read a lot and didn't drink and didn't have a girlfriend all through high school (Ok, I had one girl friend at the VERY end of senior year, but that's another story for another time).

(2) 10 years out of high school, I was still in grad school, living on a grad student stipend, and I thought everyone else was probably doing much better financially than I was.

(3) I had just broken up with my girlfriend, and I thought that everyone else would be married to wonderful attractive soulmates and there would be me standing there by myself.

In other words, I thought I was going to feel like a geek and a failure because everyone else would be wildly successful and I was still trying to figure out what the hell to do with my life.

It didn't really turn out quite that way. It was kind of weird, and I did feel some of my old insecurities flaring up (insecurities that I had not felt much in the intervening 10 years) such as when a very attractive woman who I thought I had been pretty good friends with couldn't remember my name.

But mostly, when I met my fellow alums (many of whom I had not seen since graduation) it seemed to me that everyone was kind of just doing the best they could in life, and absolutely nobody (and this was actually the big surprise) was at all interested in posturing or getting competitive or anything.

One thing I'm ashamed of. There was this one guy in high school who was kind of a loner and I guess kind of an oddball. He always used to dress like Prince, and I think (I never really knew him) tried to insist that people call him "Prince." Anyway, he showed up at the reunion in kind of an urban cowboy outfit--which is WAY out of place in Portland, Oregon--and I remember kind of goofing on him a little bit behind his back--in that way that the 3rd least popular kid goofs on the least popular kid. I shouldn't have done that, I should have just walked up and said hello. I guess not an earthshaking matter, but I still feel like kind of a jerk about it 8 years later.

Constantine

[Lsura]

My 10th came up in 2001. I didn't go to it - we weren't a highly active class, and I'm not sure there was much going on for the reunion. I may go back for the 20th, depending on where I am and what's going on schedule wise.

My 10th college reunion comes up in 2005. By that time I'll be a year out of grad school, and I really hope to make it. I couldn't make the 5-year for that because of scheduling conflicts (I was out of the country).

[dwc1970]

My ten-year reunion was held in 1998. I have not received any word on whether or not a 15-year reunion will be held this year (I was never informed of a five-year reunion being held if there was one at all.) I tentatively planned to attend it, but by the time I had been informed of the date I already had plans to be out of town that weekend. I really didn't feel like it was worth attending anyway. Most of the people I went to school with were jerks and I wasn't very popular. Also, the high school I attended through my juinior year split into two schools when a new school was built. I went to the new school for my senior year and graduated from it. Most of my friends lived closer to the old school and graduated from it instead, so I lost touch with a lot of them before I even graduated. Thew few people I still knew in my senior year weren't really that close of acquaintences. Lastly, I'm still single, and at the time of my 10th reunion I had a crappy job, so I didn't have much to show for then. On the other hand, I'm sure many of my classmates had been married and divorced and may have been out of work altogether. Even if I went to the reunion I know I would end up making a lot of unfulfilled promises to get in touch with the people I hadn't seen since graduation. I don't have any plans to attend the 15-year reunion if it's held, nor the 20th.

[hajario]

My 20th was last summer. I didn't go to in nor to my 10th and have no regrets. My class was around 6-700 people and I knew 50 or 60 of them. I am still in contact with 4 people from those days and one of them went. He told me that everyone he talked to asked specifically about me (we knew pretty much the same people). That was kind of cool but I'm still never going to go to a High School reunion.

Haj

[kunilou]

My 10th was a big party, my 20th was to see how bad everyone else had aged and my 30th -- well, my best friend from high school wanted me to go with him because his wife wouldn't go and it was a long drive. It was okay, though.

However, Mrs. Kunilou's 25th reunion found her seated next to someone who spent the entire dinner telling her who exactly in the world would be saved and who would go to hell. She has no desire to attend another one.

[dragongirl]

I wanted to go to my 10 year reunion. But, I was sort of a nerd and the three people I was friends with now are still my friends. I asked them if they were going, but they were nerds too and had no desire to relive the hell that was high school. Since no one wanted to go, we didn't.

I did however order a memory book. In the book, it gave a brief biography on all of the students since high school. My friends and I really wish we had gone now. As it turned out, so far, we are the most successful people from our class.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Skipped the 10th & 20th.
Plan on skipping the 30th.
Will be dead by the 40th.

[Eva Luna]

I went to my 10th, and had a nice, if not amazing time. Most of the people I would really have liked to see didn't come; we were sort of the misfits, and I'm sure they would echo the sentiments of those posters who think "I'm still in touch with the people I liked, and why should I bother with the ones who didn't give a damn about me 10 years ago?" (That, and we were a bunch of hardcore geeks, so I'd guess many of them were in the throes of dissertation research or something similar.)

It was nice, though, to see what some of the people I wasn't close friends with (but still liked), or only sort of knew, had done with their lives so far, especially the ones I'd known in grade school, or been in non-academic classes like choir with, or who had been rather quiet in H.S. but had gone on to do some neat stuff. (The theater dept. at my HS was very strong - John Cusack was a couple of years ahead of me - and some of my classmates had started a very successful Chicago-style improv troupe in Amsterdam.) I was also surprised at how many people remembered me who I hardly remembered at all, and vice versa.

I brought my S.O. at the time; he was Russian, and they don't do that kind of thing, and I think he was pretty much bored to tears. For the 20th, if I go, I won't bring a date unless we're either married or in some sort of super-serious relationship. The whole point is to catch up with people, so why torture a guest and distract from your purpose at the same time? And no, nobody got plastered that I saw, but we didn't stay to the end. The bad sucked, though.

[Gyrate]

I'd probably enjoy going to my next HS reunion.





















Well, I say "enjoy"; what I really mean is "be able to tolerate".


























Well, I say "be able to tolerate"; what I really mean is "have my eyeballs shaved by a rabid gibbon wielding a rusty cheese grater before I even thought about considering".





Thank you, Mark LaMarr.

[NinetyWt]

Didn't go to 10th. Didn't go to 20th. I have no desire to spend my good $$$ to see people who made my life abysmal hell for 8 years. I don't care if they all fall off the face of the earth.

[GusNSpot]

Yes to 10, 25, 40th, We are known for predictability......

I had fun. Not a big class ....... Liked the same ones, disliked the same ones, indifferent to the same ones...... changed the list around some. We don’t do the $$$ dinners but have parties and get-togethers over a weekend with maybe a tour for those who have been gone a long time.

[XJETGIRLX]

I graduated from an 'alternative' high school, and my graduating class was only 40 people. Our school doesn't hold an anniversary type reunion, but every year they have a reunion open to all alumni of any year (all what, couple hundred of us or so?).

I didn't see a single person I knew other than faculty, and most of them didn't remember me, but it was fun to go back and see what the school has done for so many people.

My husband and I had a blast. We drank wine and danced until my feet were sore!

[Baldwin]

Sadly, they don't have reunions for getting a GED. So I guess I won't be going.

[EVO95]

Too funny. my frosh year, I was such a geek, but by the next year, I became quite the salesman. Most of my classmates probably don't remember me, 'cept for the ones that forgot to pay for goods delivered, but I honestly have no desire to re-live that time. I had two close friends back then, and to this day, we still remain the same. IMHO, a reunion is nothing more than seeing who was right about whom.

[Treviathan]

I've been out of HS for six years, and even though I wasn't exactly the most popular flavor of ice cream in my graduating class, there are enough people that I'd like to run into again to make it worthwhile.

Plus, I've got a list of six or seven people who I imagine are probably incarcerated for setting something (or someone) on fire, and I'd like to know if anyone can confirm my suspicions.

[Tsubaki]

Mine was a graduating class of 20.

For some reason, an 11 year reunion was organised last year in October. I asked the girl who put it together if she would change it to November because I was going to be in the country then for my brother's wedding. Unfortunately, she said no, even though three other people asked the same thing. So some of my friends boycotted in protest.

Like many of you, I am still in contact with the people who count (my good friends). But I just wanted to go back and see which of the popular kids had screwed up their lives.





Obviously I wasn't the most popular kid in school...

[Adoptamom_II]

Mr. Adoptamom and I attended his 25th together and had a wonderful time. It was fun to match faces with the guys I'd heard him talk about all these years. His school also does the open reunion, with special honors to those classes celebrating a significant year.

My 20th was a couple of few years ago and we attended it as well. I didn't really want to go, because I was one of those "fringe" people ... never really in any particular group, but on the fringes of several. I'm glad we went, it was alot of fun and very well put together. It was refreshing to see that our class sweethearts (two different sets!) were still happily married. I won the "most kids" recognition, which was surprising to alot of people I went to school with since I was a wild and crazy gal in high school and they never imagined me "settled" with wild and crazy kids of my own.

We'll probably attend future reunions.

[TVGuy]

I went to my tenth.

But then, the only reunion my class has HAD was the tenth.

Which means I've been to ALL of them!

There's a group planning a 25th - not the group consisting of the class officers (who we're fairly sure are now in jail as part of the Enron scam or some such thing...)

The tenth was interesting, I guess. Only about 1/4 of the class actually showed up. We were all 28 and still a little full of ourselves, frankly. It was entertaining in one regard to have people comment on how much I still looked like my yearbook picture (I never was sure if I should have taken that as an insult or not)

So in general, it was an evening of music and booze and talk and just hanging out with old friends, many of whom had absolutely nothing in common anymore. Pretty average, I suppose.



I did get to have sex with two people I had always wanted to, however. That's always nice :)

[Lissa]

Considering that my graduating class consisted of four people, we haven't had a reunion yet. Before I graduated, there was talk of an all-school reunion in the future, but this idea has long since been discarded out of general lack of interest.

[vivalostwages]

Our 10th sucked because we had a lousy venue, mediocre chow, the wrong kind of music, and poor organization. I just hope they can get it right for the 20th, coming up soon.

[DMark]

Most of my friends were either a year older, or a year younger than I was....not that I didn't like people in my graduating class, I just never really hung out with them much so I never went to any of the reunions (too far, too much money to travel that far to see people I hardly knew.)
Only recently have they started to invite 3-4 years of classes together...but to be honest, what is the point? I still keep in touch with some hometown friends - most have moved to all points in the world. But to go back and see the cheerleader has gained 150 pounds and Mr. Popular sells used cars would do nothing for my ego.
If you want to take a real walk down memory lane, drink a six pack and look through your old high school yearbooks...the memories will come flooding back and that oughta be enough to satisfy any nagging feeling of nostalgia.

By the way...I once registerd on Classmates.com (or whatever it is called). Boy was that a mistake...I got a couple of emails from people but for the most part, I got about 500 emails from Classmates.com every month. I have since changed email addresses and won't make that mistake again.

[jack@ss]

I was another of those "fringe people". OK, I was the short, skinny kid with thick glasses who never dated in high school. I hated it. I don't know wether or not there was a 5 year, skipped the 10 year reunion.

20 was last summer and (just to live up to my username) I took my friend Katrina, the hottest, sexiest, wildest 20-year old girl I know. All the other geeks were really impressed, so I told them the truth, that we're just friends. I let the "popular" people from my class think that whatever they wanted.

It was kinda too bad, because the one guy I really wanted to see from high school didn't show up.

I did get 'revenge' on one guy, the guy who gave me a swirley by giving him the romanticized version of my wanderings & then, when he was questioning never having left the home town, telling him in a condescending voice not to be too hard on himself, he hadn't done that bad. The guy married his high school sweetheart, (she's still a beautiful woman) and now owns a used car lot, so he's much higher on the 'success' ladder than myself.

[Jerrybear]

My 20th is coming up soon, and there was a 10th ten years ago that I did not go to. I thought about going to it, but the admission price was more than what the Grateful Dead were charging for concert tickets at the time. I had a pretty dismal high school experience, so I figured I was not going to spend more to go to a HS reunion than I would spend for an evening with people I actually like...that is, Jerry Garcia, the rest of the band, and my fellow Deadheads.

I did the free registration at classmates, but I flat out refuse to pay any money to them. So, I am not able to post on many of the message boards. I was able to post on some of the ones for the reunion, and posted several somewhat bizarre ramblings that read like something off the back of a circa-1965 Bob Dylan album.

[Indygrrl]

I caught all kinds of hell in high school. I was different, dyed my hair funky colors, listened to punk rock, etc. That wasn't something they understood in my little town. I was attractive, but never had a date from my own school. It was hell.

So I decided to go to the 10 year reunion to show off a bit. I got a fabulous black dress that showed off all the right parts, did my hair up, and grabbed a gorgeous date who dressed like a rockstar for the event. We had a blast. I got to see all the "popular" people who have gotten fat, and watch them react to me. A few of the guys came up to me with the line, "Well, I always wanted to talk to you in high school, but you know..."

A few people really were successful, including this one guy who had been a geek. It was great to see that he's doing better than the snobbish assholes who still live in the smalltown. Good to see a few other people, but nothing too exciting.

[Lyllyan]

I'm with Legomancer on this.
A few years after I graduated, I found myself in a social situation with a classmate. I think we had spoken maybe once, as she was the popular cheerleader type and I.....wasn't. Surprisingly enough, she immediately knew me and clung to my side throughout the evening. I am still shaking my head at that one.

[MovieMogul]

Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated high school.

Would be unlikely to ever go if it was free.

Fork over $$$ to go? Never.

[Green Bean]

My 10-year was in 1999. I pretty much disliked almost everyone I went to high school with, and the feeling was mutual...but I was certainly considering going. I thought it might be fun to see everyone. My folks still live in my hometown, and the people from high school that I see around are usually friendly and glad to see me, and vice versa. So, I was thinking of going just for the heck of it.

But then I got the invitation. It was something like $100 a head and it wasn't even in my hometown. It was at a hotel or something way out on the island. (Long Island) I discussed it with my best friend from H.S., and we decided that the $400 plus travel that it would have cost us and our husbands, we could do something much more fun. So I didn't go, and I don't regret it. I'll consider going to my 20th.

[TVeblen]

There've been two reunions, I think, and I avoided both of them like the plague. I hated high school; loathed it, wished the place would burn down and the ground be sown with salt. So, no, I didn't have any warm fuzzy memories to recapture or even any curiosity to satisfy.

Oddly enough the second reunion was organized by one of closest school friends, another classic outsider. Go figure. (She's still a really neat person; we've just processed time differently.) I've run into a few folks since and that was...okay. They seemed to have turned out to be nice people. But essentially they were just casually met strangers. Who they are now was a helluva lot more interesting than any school-related dreck.

I moved on a loooong time ago, with no impetus to go back.

Veb

[Intaglio]

Not going, Never, there was a 5 year, 10 year, didn't go. Will never go, don't care when and where the reunion is. I am not/nor ever want to see the people who made my High School Years - basically shit. I couldn't wait to move away and never go back there ever Again.

The only way I would want to go back to a HS reunion, is to see that everyone who made my time horrible, is to see that they are Hopefully Fat, got 5 kids, Unhappily Married, Working a Job That They Hate, and Still Living In That Hell-Hole, I escaped from.

[Kyla]

For no special reason, I didn't have a lot of friends in my own class - my best friends were all either a year older or younger than me. This is one of the reasons I didn't go to my prom, and it might be one of the deciding factors in whether I will ever go to a HS reunion (I graduated in 1996, and we didn't have a 5 year reunion). There were some people in my class I enjoyed chatting with in classes or whatnot, but only one or two that I hung out with outside of school. If I happen to be in my hometown when the reunion rolls around, I'll probably go. But I can't really see myself travelling across the country to spend an evening with a bunch of people that I wasn't really close with ten years ago.

[AuntiePam]

Another fringe person here -- I went to the 25th and the 30th, and would have gone to the earlier ones but we lived across the country then.

Even though I haven't stayed really close to anyone, even "my group", it's fun seeing how everyone turned out, what their spouses are like.

Man, what a bunch of surprises too. I'll spare y'all the details, cuz I don't wanna look catty. :)

[5-HT]

I didn't go to my 5 year, nor do I plan on going to any potential future reunion. I didn't have a bad time in high school or anything, plenty of friends and all, just none that I was close enough with that I'd care about seeing them again.

[racer72]

I was drug kicking and screaming to my 10th by a neighbor. She was also in my graduating class her husband would not go. I was not the type to draw attention to myself in school and figure no one would want to talk to me. But things turned out much better than I expected.

1. I borrowed my dad's 57 T-Bird to take to the reunion. The car was the star when we drove up but we also got plenty of attention.

2. The neighbor I took was dressly extremely hot that night. She made me look good too.

3. Because of my exploits at the local race track and having my name in the sports section of the newspaper on a regular basis, many who wouldn't give me the time of day in high school sought me out. I didn't have to buy a drink all night.

4. Being one of the few single guys there, I also drew the attention of many of the women there. It was one of the two times I awoke in bed with someone I didn't intend waking up with the night before. She told me the next morning that she was engaged to be married. I thanked her for a good time and we haven't seen or spoken to each other since.

I didn't make it to my 25th three years ago. I an not in contact with anyone from my graduation class now so I doubt I will go to anymore. God forbid, if for some reason I am ever single again, I might reconsider. :)

[Skid Row]

Did not attend either the 10th (1992) or the 20th (last year).

Even though I did okay in high school (editor of the student papaer, student council, etc.) I was an outcast because I REFUSED to do drugs. (Which is not to say I didn't drink like a sponge fish.) So, the in-crowd had nothing to do with me. Three advanced degrees and one fairly popular network television show later (sorry, no more details), I have no desire to see those losers.

They had no use for me then, I have no use for them now. It was amazing to see that the girl almost universally recognized as the best-looking girl in our class had porked up to at LEAST 300 lbs. (Saw the photos on a Yahoo! group site started by the reunion committee.)

If one's high school reunion is ANY point of pride, get a life.

[Spavined Gelding]

My wife and I graduated high school together and have gone to the 20th, 30th and 40th reunions. We missed No. 10 because I was overseas playing soldier. There were around 200 in our class. Strangely, the reunions have become more fun and better organized as time has gone by and as the pretensions have come off.

The only bad thing that happened is that at No. 30 I wanted to spend some time with the best English teacher the world has ever seen and got stuck at a table with an old friend who has turned into the worlds biggest bore. Instead of getting to thank my teacher for all his futile efforts to educate me I got to listen to the bore pontificate about the Lindbergh Kidnaping and the innocence of Bruno Hoffman. The teacher died a few months later. I suspect the Lindbergh symposium may have been a contributing cause.

My advice, go! Like many of you I hated high school and couldn't wait to get out of there. On top of the usual adolescent agnest, I had transferred into my school at the beginning of my junior year and was very much a fish out of water in a highly cliqueie school where most of the attachments and networks were carry overs from grade school--the Longfellow clique, the Horace Mann clique, the Roosevelt clique, etc. When everybody is pushing 50 or 60 all that old stuff ends up being given just the importance it deserves and you end up with an evening with a bunch of people with whom you have much more in common than you would guess. Plus, if you don't go, you will never find out how badly that bunch of jerks you hated all those years ago has done. Living well is the best revenge.

[okielady]

I went to both my 5th (96) and 10th (01) but I can't say that either of them were spectacular. I was kinda bored for the 5th, and for the 10th I was kinda nervous. I've gained a LOT of weight, and I wasn't looking forward to seeing all my classmates (most of whom never gave me the time of day - a common theme here) with their still-perfect bodies. And I was pretty much on the button. Only a few of them had gained weight, and I'd say I definitely gained the most. I felt very self-conscious most of the time I was there.

I did however, for reasons unexplained, create a small website for our graduating class. I was asked by the woman who organized the reunion to tell everyone about the website. At the dinner (after the "awards" ceremony - with awards ranging from "most miles traveled" to "best post-partum body" *GAG*) I was asked up to the podium to speak, and I noticed while I was up there that about 75% of the people in the room weren't even looking at me, let alone listening to me. Once again, I'm 14 and invisible. Talk about some self-esteem issues resurfacing. That was a year and a half ago, and I am still getting emails trickling in (from people who were at the reunion) saying they had no clue we had a website. :rolleyes: Yeah, I'd say many of the people hadn't changed at all, and I don't mean that in a complimentary fashion.

But, curiosity killed the cat, and I'll probably return to the 15th. I'll probably even update the website between now and then. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.