# Who would NOT go to a high school reunion? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500 "2005-05-12T03:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/81 "2005-05-13T22:47:28Z")
Somebody sent an e-mail trying to verify the addresses of local people from my high school class. I don’t recognize most of the names; as for the few I do… I have a conflict with a subsequent engagement. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/82 "2005-05-13T22:55:13Z")
HS was a living hell on earth for me, I have no interest in even acknowleaging it ever happened. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/83 "2005-05-13T23:53:55Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > One of the saddest stories I know involves a high school reunion. Years ago I read a biography of Janis Joplin. During her teenage years in Port Arthur, Texas she was made to feel unlovely and she was basically an outcast. She left town and went on the road and became the great singer she was. She returned to Port Arthur for her high school reunion and, at this point of the story, I think (as Hollywood would have you believe) she will dazzle the hicks with her talent but no they just treat her like shit…again. She left Port Arthur and **less than 5 years later** she was both a legend and dead. Closer to less than 5 weeks. The reunion was in August, 1970. She would die the first week of October. And no, I’m not going to mine. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/84 "2005-05-15T03:31:36Z")
Why I skip mine. Went to my 10th, same cliques were cliqueing. I was not in one and I didn’t have a lot of good friends in h.s. Skipped 25th if there was one. For the 40th the class officers sent out questionnaires to all locatable classmembers for bio updates and I sent mine. Skipped the reunion but was sent a copy of the bio booklet later so I know all I need to know about the responders. Lots of photos too. Most would need nametags to be recognized. I still have my hair but only thanks to my prostate medicine (same as in Rogaine, but stronger). I am starting to see the classmember obits in the email edition of the hometown weekly paper. Don’t like to drive 1000 miles on I-95 anymore having done it dozens of times, and I haven’t flown since the Air Florida crash into the Potomac the week after my last flight’s plane left National Airport with iced up wings. And Amtrak has no brakes, and Greyhound takes too long, and let’s see, there must be some other reasons. Oh, I have a prior engagement. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/85 "2005-05-15T03:51:28Z")
Quite frankly this is surprising to me. I don’t see how a person can spend 4 years in a place and not have any positive memories. I wasn’t crazy about high school but I went to my 5 and 10 year reunions. It was actually a good time. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/86 "2005-05-15T04:33:30Z")
I don’t think anyone would remember me. ---
**Author:** ![Eolbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@Eolbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eolbo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/87 "2005-05-15T14:31:42Z")
I grew up in a small country town but I left many years ago. I’ve skipped all the reunions so far, and will skip the rest. If I had kept up contact with people I went to school with it might be different but I havent. We live in different worlds. I’m just not interested in travelling hundreds of kilometers to see a bunch of people I knew briefly over 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Cadabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@Cadabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cadabra)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/88 "2005-05-15T15:28:51Z")
My Highschool reunion was rather unique. It was the 25th anniversary of the school so they held a “anyone who was a student here can come” reunion. My best friend, who I met in highschool, wanted desperately to go, but I said I wouldn’t. For two reasons. First, all of the highschool people I wanted to keep in touch with I have kept in touch with. Secondly, I found out that my older brother, the jock, was going and all of his jock friends were going to be there. Using this info I sussed that it would be mostly jocks trying to relive their glory days and I wanted nothing to do with that. It turns out I was right on two fronts. My best friend went and he reported that it was full of jocks talking about this game or that game and that anyone we might want to hear about didn’t show up. He had a mniserable time, but got some new clients. (He’s a divorce lawyer) So I didn’t go and I don’t regret it. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500/89 "2005-05-15T18:47:31Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Time is a huge equalizer… It’s amazing what 40 years can do to one’s perspective on things… The playing field has leveled significantly. That’s kind of what I expected reunions to show - but it’s depressing that it took 40 years to get there! I thought about going to my 20th a while back, but was pregnant w/my twins at the time & couldn’t travel that far. I did see the photos, posted online - that pretty wild! Things weren’t much changed, though, for most people - the winners looked like winners, the lost were still lost. With some fun exceptions, of course. However, a few years ago I used [classmates.com](http://classmates.com) to contact a few people to whom I had something to say (apologies in one case, hellos in others), and that was really rewarding. One of my HS friends is now a professor of philosophy, I’m so proud of her! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-not-go-to-a-high-school-reunion/303500.md?page=4)