I've never gone to any of my HS reunions... this year would be my 25th. High school was just so unremarkable for me. I had a couple of good friends, one of whom I still keep in touch with, but most of my activities were outside of school; either competitive baseball, hockey, or Air Cadets. I feel badly for those who look back at HS as being the best time of their lives... really? Sucks to be you. I did run into an old schoolmate a few years ago though, which was quite a surprise as I went to school in London, Ontario, and was living in Vancouver, BC. He was the captain of the football team. He was driving the truck that was dropping off the furniture for my new office. It was pretty interesting, actually, as the roles had reversed from high school. He tended to be a bit of a condescending dick, and I wasn't part of the cool group. The reunion was a bit uncomfortable, as I think he was embarrassed for how he knew he acted in high school. We did the typical "hey, how're things", he told me about the divorce, 2 kids from 2 different mothers, and it was awk-ward.
HA. I graduated highschool three years ago and I only hangout with two people that went there. The other 198 people that were in the same class as me were fucking retards (well maybe not all of them, but most). Some of them are still in school, but the majority of them are working shit jobs for no pay, or not working at all. They don't have a pot to poss in and don't have anything to show for working at their ten dollar an hour job. All they still do is drink with and fuck the same 50 people they graduated highschool with. It's pitiful.
The big question to me has been, hasn't Facebook made the reunion pretty much obsolete? I know who's had kids got married/divorced/whatever or has been moving around a lot. To echo what others have said, I keep in touch with a specific group of people.......for a reason. In my situation though, I probably hung out with more people in the class above me or with grade school friends, who went to a different high school, than I did the people in my own class. I don't recall having anything against most people. I was the nerdy introverted kid, which is probably crystal clear to the few people who read my posts. I don't remember anyone going out of their way to give me shit aside from the usual maintaing the social pecking order type stuff. The big time jock of our class was two lockers away from me and was always pretty cool to me. Even so, no real desire to go. I can't really imagine spending money and having to drive somewhere just for: "Hey how's it going?" "Good. Yourself? "Oh you know, living, thriving and surviving." "Ok, well............see you in another ten years." I guess I would want to go and spread rumors that I'm suing the government over some bad meat. It's been a fantasy of mine. I would say I'd want to go to the 20 year and beyond reunions. Call it spiteful, and I'm sure some will, but it'll be interesting to see how many lovey dovey Facebook couples have had their relationships crash and burn by that point. Years of having to endure "I just have the beeeeeeeeeest hubby ever!" might be vindicated by seeing said person downing vodka martinis, chaining smoking and talking about how that "asshole" is late with another child support payment.
Funny, my 10 year reunion is tonight, at some absolute dive bar on the other end of town. By the sounds of it, at least one person has a connection to the bar and are trying use this to raise funds for it ("$20 cover, bring friends and family!"). No fucking chance I'm going. Of all the people I met in High School, I'm only in contact with two, and that's partly because one of them lives in my building. Everyone else from my 'group' back in the day I'm either embarrassed to say I was friends with, or impartial towards. Looking at the list of attendees, I honestly don't recognize over half of them, and out of the ones I do, a quarter of them I flat out don't want to see. Not that I had a bad time in high school by any means. It was fun enough, I guess. Mostly just high and drunk all the time, looking for places to grope my girlfriend -- which is to say, completely typical and a little boring, looking back. Those memories just kinda melt together with the rest of my youth/grade school years, especially since I went to college immediately after and started having actual cool adventures with people I'm friends with to this day (and will continue to be for the rest of my life, most likely). For those who would go/have gone to reunions, with Facebook and all the rest, what's the appeal of reminiscing with people who are basically strangers?
Something that's struck me is that at every point in your life, people are saying that it is the best and to live it up because it won't last long. Highschool? College? Single and working? Married with no kids? Married with young kids? The only time that I have not heard people say is awesome is when you're married and have teenagers. Obviously reality in that case is too fucking harsh to be obscured with rose tinted glasses. Teenagers suck. Of all the shit that I have had to do and will have to do, that is the time in my life that is most likely to make me turn into my own mother.
Something I just noticed from my previous post: The time at which your life really starts to suck (having teenagers) is when their life supposedly is starting to get really good (highschool). Hmmm.....
Everyone's life is different though. What about people in their 30s with jobs that don't pay as well as yours? Bad health? Or people with kids? You say that from the stance of being single and making money, which was the time span of "single and working" that I mentioned.
Actually, now that I think about it I can think of ONE good reunion experience. My grandma went to her 60th high school reunion. I'm not sure if she went to any of the other ones, but I guess she decided to go to see who was still alive. Anyway, she went back to New York for this weekend and reunited with her high school boyfriend. He was from the other side of the tracks. When they graduated he went off to build bridges and Grandma went to college. They got married to other people, blah blah blah. The point is that they didn't end on bad terms; they just went separate ways and never saw each other again. By the reunion, both of their spouses had died. They started dating long-distance, and got married 2 years later. My grandma got remarried at 80. And, her new husband was so sweet and awesome. He was so much fun. She died like 5 years later, but I think that was the happiest she had been in a really long time. My grandpa treated her like shit and was a typical Irish asshole...come home, drink, and slap the wife and kids around a bit. But, I'm still never going to a reunion. Even if I'm a shriveled, old bat.
I was always told that high school is most certainly NOT the time of your life, college is, and that anyone who 'peaks' in high school, in terms of popularity, smarts, or overall happiness, is in for a shitty life. For me, that rang absolutely true (along with the couple years post-college). If I ever have kids, one piece of advice I will definitely be passing on is "for fuck's sake, don't peak in high school!"
In other news, today I honored the "thread of horse love between the TiBettes" (or whatever that awesome phrase was) by riding from one region of Costa Rica to the other. It was awesome and felt so good to be back on a horse after about ten years. I'm definitely going to ride a couple of more times while I'm here. But, god damn does my butt hurt. And I wish I owned a sport's bra. Yes, I've talked about my butt hurting twice in a week and a half on here.
This Spoiler + this Spoiler with a side of this Spoiler washed down with this Spoiler and this Spoiler like this Spoiler
Except that all of your 30-something friends are at home changing diapers and you are trying to convince their 26-year-old little brothers to come hang out with you. "Nick's buying!"
I don't know, I had a great time in high school but I still feel like my best times are ahead of me. Maybe because having the adoration of a bunch of idiot teenagers will never match having the adoration of the WORLD. Or a small pool of respectable adults, whatever. Tonight I am going to a "celebration" for political science students, since we are all graduating on Sunday. I think that means we are going to drink until we forget that there are no jobs for us. Yay!
Who was it who designed the parody shirt with the monkey? You should wear that one instead. In fact, bring 10 of them and offer a trade for their regular shirt so you can have an evolution party.
I was just planning on asking them to defend their wearing of the shirt. That is always a fun time, hearing hipsters splutter over what a great man he is without actually knowing exactly who he is.