Jebus Crispus on a cracker. I’m working on our mumble mumbleth reunion, trying to locate people from a huge graduating class. Naturally, my first stop was Classmates.com and Reunions.com and the alumni site. I sent a broadcast email to everyone on those sites.
I get an answer back from this guy who tells me that he was treated like shit in high school and disrespected at the 20th reunion and that we can all go pound sand. Okay. Fine. Since he is a career Navy guy and Viet vet, I chat him up a bit to see if he’ll relent, but no soap. So I remove him from my mailing list.
Unfortunately, two other people send out a broadcast email, but haven’t removed him from their address books. He comes back with another blast about what a bunch of hypocritical assholes we all are and we’d better not contact him again or else blahblahblahblah.
Okay, look: ALL of us who were in the nameless rabble of high school had a less than exhilarating experience. We didn’t date cheerleaders, we weren’t invited to the good parties, we weren’t star athletes, and we weren’t elected to office: but most of us got over it (and those who were ‘above’ us) about ten minutes after graduation. You didn’t. Okay, I get that. Some people have heavy emotional scars from their teenaged years.
But let me ask you this: If we’re the hypocrites, then why have you registered on two reunion sites? Doesn’t this seem just the least bit, you know, passive aggressive? You need to take my advice in my final email to you: chill the fuck out, man.
I went to my 20th high school reunion because high school was hell and I was treated like shit.
I looked fabulous at the reunion, was a published author, and had a handsome young man as my date. Had a great time. Was even able to smile sweetly at the kids who’d held me down and beat me up at the bus stop every chance they got.
My ten year reunion was last year. I wasn’t invited. Apparently, our Senior class president just invited the people he was friendly with back in the day out to a bar. He didn’t even reserve the bar, so the foks who did show up (about 25% of the graduating class) were mixed in with all of the regular bar patrons, and nobody could tell who was who. Plus, my high school was never particularly cliqueish, so it wasn’t like it was a reunion for some insular group of “popular” kids. Eveyone wanted to know why their other friends from back in the day (those of us who weren’t buddies with the class president) didn’t show up. The asshole managed to piss off pretty much every single person in the Class of '94, his nominal buddies included. He has since been relieved of the responsibility for planning future reunions. There’s talk, apparently, of relieving him of the responsibility of attending, as well, although I suspect that tempers will cool somewhat over the intervening decade.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to beat on you, Eve!
Oh, I can’t wait until my 20th (3 years from now)! I was part of the “middle class” in high school. You know, yearbook committe, school paper, band, chorus. Now I’m 15 pounds lighter with a wonderful husband, great job title, no kids tying me down for the last decade or so and I managed to get out of the small town that all the big shots are still stuck in because they like being big fish in a small pond.
I didn’t enjoy high school one lick. It’s not that I hated it- it’s just that I felt like a complete outsider, and I was always bored.
The only reason I went to my ten-year reunion was to see my friends. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.
Boy, was I surprised- everyone knew who I was! Shocked the hell out of me- apparently, I was a lot more popular than I knew. Several people came up to me during the reunion and told me that they’d always really liked me back in the day, and had always wished that they’d gotten to know me better. Sadly, I couldn’t remember them at all…
I’d really like to hit my 20th… but I’m out of the state, now, so it might be difficult to make it back to Texas for it.
The poor undergrad who called my father in a fund drive for Dad’s grad school…“It was the worst year of my life, no way can I donate any money.” in this terribly grave voice (you have to know Dad and you’d be scared too)
My 20th :eek: is this year and some of the organizers have been asking my brother for my addy, etc. I shudder at the thought of seeing any of them and will go back only if I get to blow up the now almost defunct school.
I went to my 10th reunion just to meet a fellow graduate to pitch a business proposal. He didn’t show but it seemed like the ratio of single females to males was about 3:1 and I was single at the time. I was never part of the in crowd in school, I was known more as a gearhead with long hair. I received a couple of offers that night and ended up having a good time with one of the school “princesses”. I didn’t go to my 20th and this August my 30th is happening. The only reason I might go is to show off my 66 GTO and pictures of my grandkids.
Yeah, my tenth-anniversary high-school reunion was kind of odd.
I took the train out after work, changed at my parents’ place, and borrowed the car to go to the pavilion where it was being held. I got there, paid my twenty bucks, and went on in.
More people recognised me that I recongnised. This was surprising at first, but then on thinking about it, I remembered that I was always very bad at recognising people. And people had changed, often a lot.
I met the half-dozen friends I’d had; all but one were married with kids present or on the way.
I met my dream girl; she was also married (of course) and living in another country. It was a relief to kill off that old hopeless dream once and for all.
I left when everyone got up and started dancing. As a bachelor, I felt I had no place there with the married couples.
The 25th anniversary of my graduation is next year. I don’t even know whether there will be a reunion.
I have no intentions of going to any of mine. I think they’re pointless and useless, much like the small-minded, racist, asshole, country-folk I went to school with.
My 20th was last year. I didn’t go. I considered it for a while. Then I received these email updates from several classmates a month or so before the event (the organizer had sent out a list of questions for us and we were to email everyone back with our answers). All anyone talked about was their kids: “I have a lovely daughter Suzy who is the best dancer in her ballet class; My second son, Timmy, scored three goals in the league soccer championship; etc.” Not that there’s anything wrong with talking about your kids, but that’s *all * I saw. I figured it would be a pretty dull evening, so I stayed away.
I don’t know why the guy in the OP got so upset. I’d be more upset by being left off the lists. Sheesh, nothing like being excluded again!
I enjoyed high school for the most part, I went to a small school and most of us had all grown up together so it wasn’t a big transition or anything. No traumatic memories for me but for others there might have been.
My 10 year reunion was great fun, lots of people who lived out of town showed up, we had a nice dance hall type place rented out and a drunken time was had by all.
But the 20th reunion was horrible! What happened in those 10 years? I’m not sure but those of us that actually made it (out of a class of 65 people maybe 20 showed up) weren’t all that excited to see each other. I talked to a couple good friends I hadn’t seen in awhile and had an OK time, but haven’t talked to anyone since…that’s been 2 years ago!! I guess the further away we move from those high school years the less we want to revisit them.
I don’t know if my school has ever had a reunion. They’ve never known how to find me, and now I’m a thousand miles away. And that’s perfectly OK, because I have no desire to ever see any of those people again (see the descriptions in post #11). They are why I quit school and moved out of town.
Almost didn’t go to my 20th because of my weight, then decided I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t go. Got all tarted up (looking mighty good). I had lost my HS yearbooks in some previous moves, so I couldn’t “study” beforehand. I figure no one would recognize me because of the weight.
EVERYONE knew me. It was uncanny. I didn’t recognize anyone - lol I really had a good time. I was one of maybe 6 attendees who had moved away from my hometown/state (Jax, FL). The highlight of the evening was a picture taken of about 20 of us who literally went from kindergarten through 12th grade together. I really treasure it.
Our class stoner was still the same - long hair, Hawaiian shirt & puka shell necklace. Hilarious.
I’m kind of curious about mine. It’ll be ten years next year. I didn’t hate high school particularly (I wasn’t the coolest girl in school or anything, but no one beat me up and I wasn’t shunned or anything) and I think I turned out okay so I could see myself having fun.
However, I’m going into the Peace Corps this summer, and I don’t really see myself making a special trip from Asia back to California for my reunion. Maybe in another ten years.
My 10-year will be next year, provided our class officers do their jobs and organize it, which is iffy.
I’ll probably go, in order to see old friends since we’re all scattered now. It’d be cool to have all of us in one place. Plus I wanna silently giggle at all the (newly) fat people.*
*No, I wouldn’t wish being fat on anyone. Seriously. But at class reunions it really can be proof that karma exists.
Almost 20 years out, I haven’t been to a reunion yet, for a few reasons:
I’m convinced that the friends I would most want to see wouldn’t be there (I realize they might think the same about me, making this a self-fulfilling prophecy)
My high school has this crazy idea of “all-class reunions,” in which *everyone who ever graduated from the school *is invited to a big picnic; well and good, but I only care about the people I knew
Tradition in my family is not to go to a reunion before the 25th. With luck and hard work, maybe by then I’ll have made something of myself.
