My 25th high school reunion is coming up in September...

We had this discussion a few weeks ago, and my opinion was (and still is) that I would not want to attend any of my reunions for various reasons. However, two of the girls I knew in high school and have maintained contact with are trying to get me to go to the 25th reunion. Now, I really DON'T want to go, but they're begging me. And it would be a good slap in the face to all the "popular people" to see how this nerd turned out. :P It's about an hour and half away (four miles from my mother's house).

Opinions? Should I go, or should I hold onto those principles? :)

Unless they promise $10,000 in Solid Gold Kreugerrands, I say skip it

Yeah, if there's a big monetary prize waiting, fine. Otherwise, no thanks.

:*

I'm gonna go to the reunion website and post one of the pics I've put out here. :P That'll teach 'em... :rofl:

Make them idjuts you went to school with beg and drooooool.

:*

:P Let's see how many PMs I get on Classmates.com now. :rofl:

I was in a similar situation as you, but opted to just save my own sanity and skip it.

:hi:

:hi: I'd like to maintain the sanity I've got left. :P

then I would go. If it's not fun, you can hang out with your friends and laugh at how bad it is. :)

Thanks!

If you're only going to give "a good slap in the face to the popular people", it won't work. If the people you want to impress, didn't like you in HS, then they probably won't even notice nor remember you now, they'll be with their friends. Those days are history. If you are still holding grudges, then that's your issue not their's.

If you're going to have fun with some old friends and acquaintances, then don't let your old feelings about others stop you. If you don't have anyone there you want to see, skip it. If you do, then go.

I'm not 100% decided yet, but I am definitely leaning toward not going. :hi:

I have REALLY enjoyed my high school reunion. I wasn't "popular" OR "unpopular" in high school- pretty much knew everyone (because I was a stoner who also was in honors classes) People were a lot different than they had been, most had really grown up, and plus some of them had really interesting partners.

You know who I ended up talking to?

- The shy girl who sat behind me in homeroom who is now a rancher's wife in Montana (cool if you've never lived outside the 'burbs)

- Three Jewish guys who used to viciously make fun of my flat-chested Irish figure in junior high, who are now really funny, really cool Dads

- The wife of one of our football players (not from our HS) - she's now a hotshot executive, but she went to Penn State when I did, and we reminisced about the 80's at Penn State and tried to figure out why the black sororities (her) and white sororities (me) never mixed

- The wife of the class clown, (it's scary, but now he's a doctor). She's a doctor, too, and they met delivering health care to underserved populations on Indian reservations

- Maria who I've lost touch with, who had been to see Springsteen, and remembered after 20 years how much I loved the guy

- Marla who I lost touch with, who had small roles in our favorite series: Homicide Life on the Street and had fun stories to tell

I think the "popular" people were hanging out with each other, but there were too many interesting people and their spouses to talk to. People had really grown up, and many of them lead REALLY interesting lives now.

And the perfect thing to say to get conversation going if they're NOT interesting? "Do you have any pictures of your kids?" Works every time.

Why lose an opportunity to make peace with your past, and maybe meet some cool new people?

I've heard other stories that didn't work out as well.... so I'm still torn. :hi: Thanks for your input!

I go to THREE reunions Public, Prep and College.

My Freshman Girlfriend married Lou Fischer the CEO of Time Warner Cable; my sophomore girlfriend, now twice divorced, is Bridge Partner to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet; College Pals became GM's of the Houston Astros,CEO's of Corp's and NBA players and my room mate from Prep school played Left tackle for the Eagles for 8 years then was color analyst for 10 more.

Never had a bad one....and the larger the # the better the Reunion.

They should rename these threads: OLD ISSUES THAT WON'T DIE :rofl:

The years been to Joe football player and Buffy the prom queen.
:)

There are some from the 20th reunion there, and I got a good laugh out of most of them. :hi: If I can do this by proxy, I'll be happier about it. :P

and enjoy their company.

That would be the only reason to go, IMO.

There would be maybe one or two people I would enjoy seeing from my HS. And that would be the only reason I would go.

Otherwise, skip it.

...so it would not be like I hadn't seen them at all since graduation. Still trying to decide, though.

Thanks for your perspective! :hi:

Didn't spend any time with the people I hung around with in high-school (except my hs sweetheart and his group of guys) instead spent time w/the people I considered 'nerds'. Luckily they gave me another chance (and I brought my very charming husband) and we had a great weekend together. (Thank God for grown-up nerds!)

Makes me regret my behavior in high school and wish I would have formed friendships with them 20 years ago. All the 'cool' kids I ran with are STILL trying to one-up each other and we bored of them quickly. Glad I went, glad I grew up!

:bounce:

It helps hearing various stories from people across the spectrum of experiences. :hi:

It was pretty weird. But it was nice to see some of the people.

The nice people were still nice. The assholes were still assholes. Not much had changed there. All the nostalgia was pretty weird, I have to say. It was especially funny when they played '80s songs that came out *after* we graduated. "Hey, everyone, here's a song from the future!"

We got together with friends beforehand for drinks and dinner, which made the evening pretty fun overall. If I'd just gone by myself with my fiance it would have been pretty awkward. So, if you're going with friends, it can be fun. :)

My husband has made it clear that he HATES reunions---any reunions---and it would just be me going with two friends from HS.

You said you really DON'T want to go.

So don't. :hug:

:hug: :hi:

and take me as your date...

:D

RL

:loveya: You have to wear your red boxers with the little devil girls on them too. :P

:woohoo:

RL

:* :loveya:

I am so there...

RL

:evilgrin:

Not high school, not college. I want to remember my friends from those times just the way they were; y'know, before life had a chance to beat the crap out of them? All thoat youthful idealism and hope for the future. Yeah, I think I'll just keep those memories.

:hi:

is a negative one.

What happens if the "popular people" aren't there or don't notice you or notice but feign disinterest?

You wanna be appreciated for how you turned out? Hang around here. We'll appreciate ya.

:* I just posted one of my recent pics to the class reunion website. They'll just have to hate.... :rofl:

:loveya: It's still six weeks away, but I'm most likely not going. And I'll certainly enjoy hanging out here more than I would being there.

:o

:rofl: They wouldn't know what hit 'em. :P

:*

Sounds like you really don't want to. :D

I really don't. :)

But I haven't gone to any of my reunions. I figure, I don't have anything to prove to the asshats that dissed me through high school, so why bother?

Although it might be fun to see the big football star fat and bald and the pretty little pom-pom girls that look more like pom-poms themselves.

It might be nauseating, too.

Nah. Save your stomach. Take a bubble bath instead. Do something for YOU.

I just did something really mean---I posted one of my very recent pics on the reunion website. Can't wait to see what PMs I get! :rofl:

I think I'd probably do the exact same thing. Let 'em drool.

:rofl: The only other pictures out there are one really old one of a girl I knew (pic from about 1989) and one from a guy I had a crush on (who has indeed lost his hair and porked out). :P Let 'em weep.... :evilgrin:

night, there have been 21 hits to view it. :P

Soon you'll have other people asking if you're gonna go...and drooling.

:crazy:

But being in the NFL doesn't preclude being fat and bald.

What do you have to prove to those people? Nothing. You've made a success of your life and you became a very beautiful woman. Going to high school reunions is all about "LOOK AT ME NOW". You have nothing to prove to those people. Give it a pass. Besides, all of us here at DU know what a wonderful (and hot) woman you are. Isn't that enough?

Q

I've been above all that bullshit up until now, and I think you (and everyone else who has said it)are right---what I do have to prove? Nothing. :)

:*

I was not one of the popular crowd; I was in all the 'smart' classes. But people had grown up, and a stranger watching our reunion would have probably thought I was one of the popular kids because of all the folks I was hanging out with--and none of my high school friends even went. I find that I end up talking to the people I knew in elementary school, folks from my neighborhood and Sunday School, even if I never saw them in high school. Maybe we remember each other more because we were in the same classes for so many years back then, I don't know.

One funny incident: I was talking quite a while to a man who I'd known pre-high school for quite some time. He's a gay man and he's led an interesting life: lives in NYC, has several books out, won an Emmy for a children's show, hung out in Studio 54 back in the day. We were talking for quite a while, and a non-reunion person (someone's friend) was there through our conversation. She exclaimed to him, " Wow. You must have been popular (in school)," and he and I cracked up laughing because not only was he not a popular kid, he was a kid who got made fun of. As another poster said, the popular kids usually are not the interesting people to talk to, but you never know who/what you might find.

:) I'm still debating.

there are some nice people you may run into. :) I just went to my 20th a few weeks ago.

Just don't set your standards high. People who were snooty in high school are most likely the same way now. Some improve, most don't.

:P Thanks---I'll consider it.

Beside, you're a babe...

Why wouldn't you want to go and show off...

If you need a date...

I'll go...

You can tell them I am Michael McDonald....

Cause only fools BeLIEEEEEVVVVVEEEEEE!!!!!

:* :rofl: RetroLounge has volunteered to be my date, but if he backs out, you're next in line. :)

:hug: I can't imagine it being WORSE than high school.

I just realized I was attending an event filled with seld centered assholes who still ran in cliques and treated people like shit.

1) I didn't like most of the people in my class.
2) The ones that I did like, I was still in touch with.
3) High school reunions are an excuse to brag and posture.
4) Now that I'm in the position to brag, I don't care to do it to a bunch of assholes who I didn't like.
5) Maybe I'll go to my 50 year reunion, just to see who's dead.

you and I pretty much have the same take on them. Maybe I'll show up at my 50th just to see who's dead.... :P

I got along with everyone in H.S. I can't wait to go. :bounce:

Me? I graduated in a class of 500+ students. Not everyone got along, and the snooty people made nerds' lives miserable.

It sounds like you have some issues that should be resolved. Go and realize that the terms popular and unpopular don't matter once you leave high school-to be bluntly honest it seems like these folks wore down your self esteem. Go and prove to yourself that their opinions don't matter-but look fabulous doing so! Honestly, you will probably be amazed. It's sad that these people still make you think in terms of popular or unpopular-screw that! They missed out on you in high school-let 'em see it now.

It seems like it would be good for you to realize that those people who could have been bitchy or evil in high school probably grew up a lot. Now they have the same struggles you do and probably don't think they way they once did. Go with friends and tell them that if it sucks you are bailing early-and taking them with you.

Of course, take this with a grain of salt-I graduated in a class of 55-which makes it a lot harder to be part of a specific group. I was a jock, a nerd, a bit of a rebel at parties, and the preppy kid running the student council. I come from a way different way of life. My ten year was last year and it was fun-more for reasons of being nosy than anything else.

:) The friends I would be going with both went to the 20th reunion, and they said a lot of the people who went are very much the same. Some have grown up, though. Food for thought.

Thanks!

...if I had become fantastically rich and famous. Since I haven't, I wouldn't. :)

But it's a fun bit of speculation - wouldn't it be nice to rub it in to all the shallow jerks with whom I shared such mutual contempt? If you're in a situation to do that, then go for it. If not, don't waste your time. That's my advice, anyway.

I think it would be a colossal waste of time if not for a handful of people I wouldn't mind seeing. Other than that, the only other reason I'd go is to rub in my success, which would be totally petty and a very high-school thing to do. :P So do I stoop to their level, or do I remove myself from it (which I've done nicely in the past 25 years)?

You may be surprised at how much fun you have. People do change...

Not only that, but you will get to hang with the friends that you keep in touch with.

I guess I was lucky in that I went to a small school. My graduating class only had about 170 people and we were all pretty good friends. I played sports and smoked pot so I could hang with the jocks and the stoners. I went to my 20th reunion and had a blast. We didn't have a 25th.

I think you should go.

:) Still thinking about it. Thanks for the input---I appreciate it! :*

was in high school I had no choice but to associate with those folks. I've never been to a reunion because I didn't want to pay to associate with those people.

I definitely wouldn't pay. I don't have any resentments toward anyone there, I just register a zero when it comes to wanting to see 'em.



I don't know why, but my high school experience was neutral. I thought I was too good for the popular clique, in a way, which blows my mind now. I thought they were pretty stupid. I dont' know where that arrogance came from, but I'm kind of glad I had it. My experience was just totally nothing, neutral.

:P Those things aren't free, and I am not sure I want to pay $50 to have a lousy time. :rofl:

My opinion: Don't Go. For everyone else's sake.
Stay home with the Family.

reunion. :) If I did go, I would not be the one causing it to be lousy. :P I'm still not decided yet, but I'm most likely going to stay home.

Thoughts?


You are...if my math skills haven't failed 4-2 now?


Time to let go, dear.

Saw a good mixture of old friends I had lost touch with, and friends I've kept. My school wasn't very pretentious, though, and I got along with everyone, so there weren't any old enemies, and no one played that "Look how well I turned out" stuff you see in the movies. Just a bunch of old friends hanging out. Very nice. Your mileage may vary.

And even though I'm wearing smiley-face boxershorts right now, I can say with all seriousness those events are as much a waste of time now as high school was back then (in terms of the social pecking order garbage...)