Over a quarter of a century ago, I attended my first class reunion. Our ten-year reunion. There was a lot of hesitation, excitement and anticipation going into the weekend's activities. Looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up. Dealing with all the babies that had been born. Remembering the small handful of classmates who were no longer with us. Seeing how much we'd all "grown up" in the span of ten years.
As the weekend hit, expectations were pretty much thrown out the window. Many of the people I expected to see didn't attend. As I remember, the "committee" did all they could to contact people to let them know about it. I remember that the popular cheerleader chose not to attend (even though she lived in town) because she felt she'd put on too much weight (which none of us could see). I remember that one of the shy, quiet nerdy girls showed up and we hardly recognized her--she had blossomed quite nicely over the ten years. We had a couple of people travel thousands of miles to get there, including and Air Force captain who arranged leave from Germany to be with us. And there were plenty of other similar stories. Of those who couldn't join in; of those who refused to join in; of those who did all they could to be sure they could attend. We even had a couple who crashed that reunion--not sure how they knew about it, but I remember that we welcomed them with open arms.
So while it wasn't as well-attended as we would have liked, those of us who were there had a great time! We all enjoyed seeing other, and catching up with those whom we'd lost touch with. I tried to talk with everyone there, but time caught up with us, and some people were missed. And frankly, there were a couple of people I didn't know that well in the old days--I might have avoided them, too. For those I did talk with, it was a great reunion. We reminisced about the good old days. And we wished that many others would have shown up. But there were no regrets, and I think everyone was glad they joined in!
Reunions--they are funny things...
4 comments:
I think I may have gone to the reunion of the high school I moved away from in my junior year ;)
These reunions for me are true eye openers - in the best and worst ways. On the upside, it is rather nice being the one of the gals who blossomed... ;-)
I have sooo enjoyed going to our reunions. However, I am in a good place and I look better now than I did back then, and I am no longer afraid or care what others think of me and I find that a huge advantage at these sort of things. I am shocked though because I was certain I would hate the damn things
Sounds like you had a heart warming time. I never wanted to go to any reunions, i was one of those awkward nerdy girls nobody paid any attention to and if they did it was to make fun of me. So.. no reason to reminisce about all that ...
but glad you had a lovely time.
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