10 year reunion. Should I bother?

Okay. The reunion’s 4 days away and about 300 miles away. Plus I start teaching the day after I’d get back. I really liked high school and my graduating class at the time, but lots of time has passed and I hardly talk to these people anymore. I always thought I’d go to my 10 year, but just not sure now if it’s worth the hassle.
Did you go/not go to yours? Any regrets? Any…um…non-regrets (or would that just be grets?)

Your thoughts, please.

Mine’s next summer, and unless something drastic happens, I’m planning on going. I only keep in touch with one friend from HS, although I occasionally get an e-mail from others (our school’s alumna has a web site).

But, I’m curious how it’s going to be.

Brian (my hub) and I graduated the same year and from the same high school. Our 10 year reunion was a few years ago. :o We didn’t go. I’m thinking of attending my 15th so I can get see how much everyone has changed. Besides, I still keep in contact with a few people from high school. They pretty much keep me updated on what’s going on back home.

My advice, if you got something to brag about, then go. If not, then don’t go. All that really happens at reunions is people go to show how much better off they are than anybody else. That’s why I skipped mine, I got nothing to brag about. That, plus noone liked me in HS, so I could care less about those people.

I hated my high school from ninth grade on. I graduated with 114 people and the cliques were horrible. I only go within the city limits of my hometown when forced.

No, I didn’t go; no, I have no regrets.

Yeah, xixor, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. Of course, I might have a Swedish girlfriend then, which has to count for something in the bragging department. :wink:

Seeing all the cheerleaders had gotten fat, I mean FAT,
was worth every thing I put into it!!!

Damn straight you should go!

I had one of the funnest evenings when I went. I missed the five year, and didn’t think I missed much. I stayed close to those that I liked. What would I be missing. For the ten year reunion, however, I volunteered to be on the planning committee.

I’m glad I was. I basically had to go.

Seeing everyone 10 years later, and ten years older, was truly a fun experience. What you thought others would accomplish, they didn’t. What you thought some would never accomplish, they did, and even more.

But the funnest part was seeing everyone acting normal. That is, no one was particularily interested in impressing anyone. They were there to have some beers and shoot the shit. It was great to see the walls and insecurities of youth gone, replaced by everyday, casual, people.

Luckily we had a huge turnout and most people came solo. That made it easier to return to our youth and laugh at the times we had shared together.

Definitely a must do.

I hated high school and felt isolated from most of my classmates, but I was persuaded to go to my 10th reunion and had a much better time than I’d expected to. People who I’d thought never noticed me in high school remembered me, and people I’d thought of as mere acquaintances remembered me fondly. I’d also arranged to meet up with my few REAL friends, so we all had people to fall back on, but we all ended up having a great time.

The 20th was a bunch of tired old poseurs who were dying to impress each other and I regretted attending THAT one. Although an ex-football player pointedly snubbed me, and the laugh I got from that was worth the price of admission.

I went to my 10-year, and had a so-so time. I went to my 20-year, and had a great time.

I think what made the 20-year reunion so much better is that one of my HS classmates decided to have a pre-reunion party. She called me and we developed a list of about 20 of our closest friends to invite to this little deal. Back in HS, we were all pretty close, but over the last few years, none of us had kept in touch with more than about 4 or 5 others. Still, since it was a smaller group of people that had been tight at one time, it was a great ice-breaker, and allowed us to get reacquainted with the people we would be most likely to want to be reaquainted WITHOUT the pressure of seeing 300 classmates at once. The pre-reunion soiree was a couple hours before the reunion, and I think we had about 15 classmates (most with spouses in tow) attending.

From what I’ve heard from the spouses, the pre-reunion thing was really nice for them, because they could get to know other people in a smaller setting, and they ended up enjoying the reunion because they didn’t feel like wallflowers.

If you enjoyed high school, go.

There were a few cliques at my (small) HS, (and some persisted through the 25th reunion), but the majority of us just had a good time seeing how we’d turned out. (Had any of us tried to impress anyone else, he’d have been laughed out of the room.) It’s a good time to catch up on people you drifted from that you might want to re-contact.

If you hated/feared/dreaded high school, then you should probably skip it–unless you bought MicroSoft stock that year and haven’t sold it, yet. In that case, you might enjoy going back a bit more.

I actually liked the people a lot. I knew almost every single one (of course, there were only 88 of us). I think I’d like to see them, but there is that whole trying to impress people thing. “Yeah, I’m a music teacher” just doesn’t sound as good as “Yeah, I won a Grammy last year.”
Ya know.
But also there is the traveling thing (a good 6 hours by car or $150-200 to fly up to San Jose). If this were in the middle of the summer, I’d have been there. But right before school? Ugg…I’m already tired and behind with preparations.
15 year reunion. Now that’s starting to sound attractive.

Eh, I guess I’m just looking for someone to make my mind up for me.

I went to my tenth and had a good time. I wasn’t all that popular in school, as I’ve said in many a teen-angst/I hate HS type thread, but when I went to my 10th, I had a good time seeing what some of my classmates had done with their lives. It was cool. Everyone was very friendly and excited to see each other. My class was about the size of yours, DeathLlama, so once again, I knew everyone.

My husband, however, went to his 20th recently and it sucked. It was just a bunch of not-quite middle-aged people bragging about their careers and kids and cars and crap like that. But he went to a much larger school, in a town where that stuff seems to count more. What can you say…

Of course, one reason I might have enjoyed mine so much more is that we were newly-weds and had a great time with each other, as well as talking with classmates.

If I had your situation, though, with travelling and school starting, I probably would wait for 15.

For whatever reason, my HS class had a 9 1/2 year reunion. I attended and was aghast to discover that little had changed. Or maybe I had changed a lot, having moved away and gotten a life. Anyway, I don’t know if there were any other reunions - I never heard of any.
Our 30th will be in 2002, if there is one - doubt that I’ll bother with that one either. I’ve fallen out of touch with everyone I knew from those days and the few I’d really be interested in seeing didn’t make the last one and likely wouldn’t make a future one. Guess I’ve outgrown high school…

My ten year is coming up in 3 years and I can’t wait to go. From what I’ve heard 5 years are terrible because everyone is still stuck in high school mentality, but by the ten year or later people have grown up enough to be interested in what others are doing rather than tooting their own horns.

Anyway–if you want a preview–check out http://www.highschoolalumni.com and see if your school is registered. I’ve found a couple old friends that way and it’s been fun catching up with them.

I went to my 10th reunion last October and it was a HUGE let down. I was not popular in high school but I did have quite a few friends that I was looking forward to seeing. I spent the $65 for the admission fee, got all nice and dressed up only to find out that the cliques that were formed in high school were still the same 10 years later. I stayed a very short time and promised myself not to attend any other of my reunions.

DeathLlama, it sounds like we are in a similar situation. My 10 year reunion is next month, I went to a very small school (86 people in my class), I’m going to have to fly about 1000 miles to go, and I liked the people I went to school with.

The only difference is that I am so excited about going! I know that people are saying that the only reason to go is to brag about something, but I disagree. I knew the people I went to high school with practically all my life. Of course, after high school it is impossible to keep in touch with everyone. I just want to touch base with everyone, meet their families, and laugh over old times.

I say if you liked them, and would like to see them again, then go. Don’t worry about bragging about anything!

Amanda

BTW, my bil is a music teacher and I think that is a wonderful way to earn a living!!!

Our 10th was a joke - one poor girl decided to try and throw it together because our “class officers” were complete losers who never did a thing after school - no one even knows where they are. She did a decent job for the time she had to do it but it wasn’t what I had expected.

Anway, I did go and it was worth it for only one reason for me: There was a guy at the reunion I had a crush on during high school and who wouldn’t give me the time of day then. Now, I went up and started talking with a couple of people he was talking with and he couldn’t place my face. Looked at my nametag, eyes got real big, gave me a good up-n-down once over and said, “Michelle?!”. Ah, the sweet smell of victory!

It was interesting over all. Find a friend you have stayed in contact with and go together - that way you can talk about how fat and bald everyone has gotten and won’t feel like you’re a wallflower.

My husband’s 25th is next year and I really want to go. He was a bit of a pothead/geek in high school. I’m 12 years younger than he. I am his bragging rights. :slight_smile: At least, you know, to an extent.

I went to my 25th-was shocked at how some people aged! In particular-one guy (star athlete, lettered in football and track)he now looks like abowling ball! I couldn’t understand how a former athlete could let himslf go like that!