My 10 year high school reunion is tomorrow night, and its taking place only two blocks from my house. Its a great chance to catch up with old friends, forgotten faces, and cherished memories that have been lost over the inevitable flow of time. So, of course, I ain't going to that shit. My high school class, for lack of a better description, was friggin' terrible. I think I graduated with somewhere around 200 people, and I don't think there is one of them who I'd be excited enough to see to make me want to put up with the other 199 of 'em. Hell, I looked at the RSVP website, and to be perfectly honest, I don't recognize or remember somewhere around 90% of the names on there. For fuck's sake, I can't even remember the names and faces of people I meet THIS WEEK, much less those of people I may have shared a 30 minute class with 10 years ago. Our public school was also pretty segregated (70/30 black/white), not as in unequal or anything, its just that unless it was for class or sports, there just wasn't much social mixing. Sad thing, but that's the way it was, and the way I'm sure it still is at a buttload of places. The other names, for the most part, belong to certain niche categories: 1) Druggie 2) Saved by the local crazy culty church 3) People who are alright, I guess, but I didn't really hang around them enough to justify me putting up with an evening with the other fuckers I mean, I see these people out in public every once in a while, and I'm cordial and nice and I'm glad to see them and reminisce, but for the most part, I fell out of touch with these assholes for a reason, and I'm not broken up about that one iota. I have my one buddy who I've been friends with since kindergarten who I still talk to everyday (he's even the Godfather to my son) that I graduated with, and I'm perfectly ok with that. And he's going fishing this weekend, so fuck him. Ha! The hard part has been ducking the planning committee. HOLY SHIT, these people are relentless. I get email after email after email asking me to RSVP or to buy a ticket or to put up money for sponsorship- its been a never-ending cycle of I-Don't-Give-A-Shit-Leave-Me-Alone. But despite my big talk here, I'm not an asshole, so I don't say that and just ignore them. Until I see these people in public. Ugh. At least I have a couple of excuses with the new baby and my health (kinda stretching on the latter, but so what- eff these people if they weren't close enough to me at the time of my accident to know what my current status is), so I'm kinda off the hook. I'm sorry people, I know yall mean well and everything, and I appreciate that. But like a said earlier, its not worth my money or my time with from my wife and child to remember "the good ol' days". And to think, I was voted runner-up for the "Mr. <School Name>" honor. Ha! What can I say- if you had to sum me up with one word back then, you'd be stuck here for another 10 years in a never-ending-back-and-forth gridlock trying to decide between "Innocent" and "Naive". Anywho, this week was long, and I need a drink. I made tuna ceviche for tonight. Yay!
Through the joys of Facebook, I am "friends" with a bunch of people from high school. We're supposedly having our 20 year reunion this year. I'm all set with that. Seeing them on Facebook is enough. It's amazing how many of them are still stuck in high school, remembering the good ol' days. For many people, high school was "the best of times", and that was the peak of their existence. Not me: I like to think that I'm on an upward track no matter what time of my life it is, and that my "peak" is a long way off. I don't need to get together with a bunch of people who want to say, "Dude, remember that time in History class when so-and-so did such-and-such?" At least with the weather getting warm here, it's getting to finally be my favorite time of year: Let's hear it for Sundress season!
I have zero interest in my high school reunion(s). I don't really understand the fascination with them. If I cared to keep in touch with someone, for the most part I kept in touch with them. If I didn't keep in touch with someone, I'm not sure why having shared a classroom or two with them 10+ years ago gives me a sudden strong bond. I'm sure some of them have turned out to be very nice people who I could form friendships with that maybe did not blossom in high school, but there are nice people to make friends with everywhere without having to spend money attending an awkward party.
I went back to my hometown a few weeks ago to meet up with a couple of high school friends. Like me, they had gotten out of small town VA. We ran into several who we went to high school with, and for most the years have just not been kind. Like $100T2, I found that a few were still living their glory days in high school and are content to do the same old thing in the same old place with the same old people. I guess I should envy their contentedness, but moreso it just made me sad.
Oh, believe me, I know they aren't the same as they were in high school. Most of them are worse now. Dude, we live in a time where most people you have ever known are just a click away on Facebook. I've seen enough to know that dealing with the vast majority is not worth the small pleasure I might get from one or two of the alright ones. When I said that most of them are on drugs/hardcore Jesus, I wasn't talking about how they were back then. And to be frank, if they want to judge me for not going, let 'em. Why would I give two slivers of a fuck about what they think? The ones that matter are already in my life, and they know the real me, and that's all that matters to me. I have to work everyday while The Wife is home taking care of our buddy, and I may get an hour or so of him awake when I get home in the afternoons before I/he falls asleep. I'm not going to waste an evening with the two of them so that I can maybe-possibly improve my image to a bunch of people who don't matter. I told the planning committee that I just had a baby, and if they want to judge me for choosing him over them, then every single one of them can go and sit on their thumbs. ... Though, I will be sad to miss the girl who wants to do it to me and make me cry. She may have even been able to turn me straight. The Wife would have been appreciative, if nothing else.
I'm going to echo this. I didn't see any reason to go. Sure I still had friends from high school that I saw and talked to reasonably often but wasn't sure I wanted to go. I had a lot more fun than I thought possible. We did it on the cheap, $15 per, two kegs, finger food= perfect. Everyone loosened up and had a good time. We even had to go get another keg. Like 'sack said, its two blocks away dude, go. You can always bolt if it sucks.
Ran into the "cool guys" from HS the other night, ya know what they're doing now? They crush up caffeine pills, put them in 4Loko, and go pick up super drunk women to (basically) date rape at their apartment. For work, one of them is a part time bank teller and the other has to work for his dad because hes now a registered sex offender for fucking an underager.
I appreciate both of your reasons, but in my case, they just don't really apply. And the tickets are $75. I can find much more useful things to waste that on, I promise.
I have to side with Blue Dog on this. I would not go. If I really cared to party with the people I went to high school with then: A) I would have kept in touch with them, and we would still be friends. B) I would have contacted who I wanted to hangout with by facebook. Ten years can change some people or it could change nothing about them. Drinking with people that you haven't seen in ten years seems kind of uncomfortable or immature to me. Either you aren't going to have anything to talk about at all, or you are just going to talk about "the good ole days." Then of course you are going to get the asshole who is going to brag about his Beamer, his "gorgeous" girlfriend, and his perfect lawyer career. When secretly he is a coke snorting sweazle that secretly likes fucking hairbrushes. But hey, your choice.
The people who rarely change are the ones who still live 10 miles from where they grew up (no offense nerds). That's exactly why I didn't go back to my 10 year reunion. I went home for a high school friend's wedding about a year before my 10-year reunion, and it was brutal. I grew up in northern Indiana, and about 90% of my high school never left town. They still go to Friday football games. The dating circuit remains as incestual as it was in high school. Many have married and divorced each other. It's sad, really. As far as the weekend goes, this will be the first weekend in 6 weeks that we won't either be out of town or have guests. I'm wiped out. Feel like I haven't had a day to my self in forever. Playing golf Saturday morning, then going to the beach in the afternoon. Brunch on the beach Sunday, followed by a lot of napping. I'm getting wood just thinking about it.
Are you worried they will make fun of you for marrying a Mexican or something? I understand what you mean. I am in contact with the 7 people I went to high school with that I still want to be friends with, and we still get together a few times a year. Other than that everyone can go eff themselves. I see what the others do via the facebook. "The new bar in town has Busch Light on draft and it comes in a mason jar!" I did go to my last high school reunion just because I believed myself to be the most successful of our graduating class. That's not true any more, as the people with graduate degrees are now in the job market. Thus I will stay away.
Am I the only one that thought of "The Little Mermaid," when reading the title of this thread? I now have the song stuck in my head... Wow....
I'm going to my 10 year reunion in August, I got along with everyone in our graduating class and just about everyone is successful and turned out well so I probably won't have to listen to any sob stories while I'm there. Plus I didn't drink at all in high school so it will be fun to have a few beers with these people. A couple of my friends are still harboring grudges from being picked on 10 years ago and aren't attending which is fucking ridiculous, but such is life. Keep dreaming buddy. Is this a joke? You really didn't get the reference?
I know it is from Back to the Future, but I still read the "Under the Sea" and immediately thought of the Little Mermaid. I'm going back to being quiet now.
My ten year reunion was last fall and I did not attend, hell it's bad enough that I've moved back to my hometown. My graduating class was just over 400 and, including spouses/significant others, there were less than 80 at the reunion. Were there people that went that I'd have liked to catch up with? Sure. But that wasn't reason enough for me to kick out the money for dinner, open bar, the registration fee, etc. The night of the reunion I actually went to Raleigh and hung out with a TiB member. I'm about 99% sure I got the job I interviewed for this week so I'm in a good mood - sex & liquor on the menu for the weekend.