This.
I went to the 5th. All the same people stuck with the same people as in the cafeteria at school. Never went to another. I don’t think they held the most recent one, the 40th. I haven’t stayed in touch with anyone in my class. Don’t care. I just moved to within 4 miles of my high school, I’m living in the house I lived in then, in fact. Wouldn’t drive that far to a reunion. There were a lot of religious people that went to my school and I seem to recall that at the first couple reunions there were people that didn’t want alcohol at the reunion.
My wife and I went to the same HS and graduated the same class. We went to the 10 and 20 year reunions, and after the 20, we talked about it and agreed we did not need to attend any more of them. 30 would have been last year. The people from that era in our lives we want to stay in touch with, we put at little effort in maintaining friendships. Others, no need to mingle with them any more. One thing is for sure - we both were doing alright in terms of health compared to our HS cohorts.
It sounds like you probably should have gone. Very few people actually achieve their potential and meeting more of them might have helped you feel better about yourself.
Either that, or you could use one of my thoughts about my HS reunions… that if I did go, I should hire a limo, a bodyguard and a couple of girls half my age and show up that way. Now *that *would get my classmates talking! 
- I have bad social anxiety
- Not much had changed/It hadn’t been long enough
- I hadn’t accomplished much, and what little I had was a tad embarrassing if anything
- To the extent people had changed, it was mostly for the uglier
- I could tell #4 because of social media, which meant you could keep up with everyone anyway
- I moved away, not too far, but far enough I don’t even visit family
- I talked to a handful of people in high school and I am already in touch with all of them. I didn’t want to know/see 97% of those people 10 years ago. Sure don’t want to see them now.
Has anyone mentioned Springsteen’s Glory Days?
It is spot-on WRT people who prefer to remember the past.
There’s probably a little bit of that, but it’s not the predominant reason.
I didn’t mind high school - not the best time of my life, not the worst either. But I’m not all that interested in returning either. With facebook &tc., anyone who wants to find me can and I’m in touch with the two or three people who I want to be in touch with. I’m not interested enough to bother with the reunion. Still, had I become wildly successful, I’m shallow enough that I might have gone to at least one reunion to show off a bit.
Yes. I hated high school with the fire of a thousand thousand suns. Apart from a small circle of friends whom I haven’t seen since, they either ignored me or treated me badly. At one point the school went out of business and I wished they were imploding it so I could pay to be the one to push the dynamite plunger thingie.
snfaulkner, I had this fantasy that my hand would turn into a gun, I’d shoot the motherfucker who bullied me and my friends, and then the hand would become a hand again. No proof, no jail time.
If Hollywood has taught me anything, it’s that the response to that is to hire an escort to pretend to be your wife and tell everyone that you founded Twitter or invented shoes with blinking LEDs or something. Monocle optional.
I was in China.
I went to several High Schools, as my father was always changing jobs & moving us.
The one I graduated from?
I went there for one semester.
There was nobody I knew or cared about.
had a good time in high school. had some really great friends I stayed in touch with up until about 5-7 years after high school. I was the first to move on, get married buy a house, join the military, and so on. Haven’t had nor desired any contact with any people from my hs days since. I’m not even sure if my class has had any reunions
I went to my 5- and 10-year reunions. Had wonderful conversations with some very nice people I had no recollection of having previously met (class of >500) and wondered where they were when we were teenagers.
My 35-year reunion is coming up this summer :eek: and I have no desire to attend it, nor have I gone to any others in the meantime.
I actually DID attend my 10th. It was hideous, with a couple of exceptional moments thrown in. Never went to another.
When I was in high school, my closest friends went to different schools. I knew them thru family, Dad’s work, and church. By the time the big 0 years reunions started, I was several states away. Still have several current friends from my HS years
Pretty much this. Also, I didn’t go to my 10th because the tickets were absurdly expensive. The person who planned it had married a doctor and lived in a big city, so maybe she was used to paying over $100 for dinner. Me, not so much.
My 20th was more reasonably priced, it was just a bunch of people hanging out at a bar. But I had tickets to a hockey game that night so I skipped it.
Because it was at a bar in downtown DC on Shabbos. Wasn’t even an option. And because 10 years ago in high school, I was neither Jewish nor Orthodox and I had no real desire to explain how those things came about to anybody there. The people I want to talk to about it already know.
My school wanted me to pay $75 to attend. Besides, on the days of my 10th and 20th reunions, I was at the school on those days (I worked the press box for varsity football games, and we happened to have home game on those days).
- I was the top 25% of the class. It was only the second year of the school. It’s still small but I think they have around 30 people in a graduating class typically. There were about 30 students total when I graduated. They’ve had some general reunions since but I doubt I’d know anyone there. I’ve stayed more in touch with some teachers from there than any students.
For the 10 year I had recently left the active duty army and didn’t hear about it.
On the 20th my then wife told me to go. She didn’t want to go with me to see a bunch of people she didn’t know. It was a trap! I had a great time. Then I got accused of having sex with someone I met there and paid for it for the rest of my marriage (I didn’t by the way. Wish I had since I paid for it anyway).
On the 25th I had a great time. I was single by then. Became friends with a few people who I didn’t really know during high school. Fell into bed with a woman who wouldn’t have looked twice at me in high school. We are still very good friends and occasionally more.
We didn’t have a 30th.
High school wasn’t a particularly good period for me. People change. Some of those that didn’t run in my circles are now good friends. No need to hold a grudge just because I wasn’t popular.