I went. I chatted. I got drunk with girls from my year nine science class. As promised, I attended my 10 year high school reunion and here are my thoughts. This post weighs up reasons for and against attending high school reunions in the hope of helping you decide if you want to attend yours.
Pro – If you are anything like me, you’re known to suffer a little FOMO. Missing out on the fun and having to hear about it second hand would have had me squirming like I used to when I was sick and had to miss school. What if Samantha* did something funny at lunch (like weeing her pants again) and I missed it?
Con – Annoying people from school are still annoying 10 years on. You WILL find yourself stuck in boring conversations with people you don’t like. It WILL bring back memories from art class where you were stuck in boring conversations with people you don’t like while you were trying to cut your lino. They WILL over share and tell you things about their sexual life that will haunt your nightmares. But this is kind of your fault. You didn’t want to miss out, did you?
Pro – Nice people from school are still nice. Once you remember their name, you will enjoy reminiscing about that time at band camp where you had too much sherbert and thought it’d be a great idea to dress as Austin Powers and do a dance for the talent contest.
Con – Bitchy people from school are still bitches. That doesn’t change.
Pro – If you attend, then people can’t bitch about you.
Con – You may find yourself getting a ‘round the circle’ update on who is getting married in the next year (in case you’re wondering, it’s all of them). Your only reply to this may be ‘I live near the best bakery ever’.
Pro – The bakery proves quite the talking point. It becomes apparent the sausage rolls served on the night don’t quite measure up.
Con – You really feel like a sausage roll now, but the bakery is shut.
Pro – You will enjoy reminiscing about good times from school camps including having a midnight Corroboree to this song or the misfortunate trip to the hospital. (In unrelated news, you should know that climbing a barbed-wire fence to ride a llama is very dangerous.) You will remember the Greek Drama Festival** in which your tone-deaf friend was asked to ‘just mouth along’ to the songs. It will feel like you’re back on the playground running around on the “holy grass”. Kidding, we’d never do that. Rumor has it if you set foot on that grass the dead nuns buried*** there would rise like zombies from their grave to claim you.
Unlike Channel 9’s entire second half programming, attending your high school reunion is not ‘unmissable’. I am glad I went because I had a fun time. And I’m pretty lucky because I’m still quite close with some school friends so we had each others backs when we got stuck in awkward chat (see point two). But for people that didn’t have the best time at school it would have been a tough thing to walk into alone. So go if you feel like you can’t miss it, but if you don’t attend your life won’t be any less awesome.
*Names have been changed to protect pants-wetting identity.
**Yes. I’m a nerd.
***Never been confirmed, but we all knew it’s true.
Have you attended your reunion? How was it? Or if not, what are your hesitations or excitement about going?
the blank notebook 
We have our 15 year coming up next month. We didn’t have 10 or 5. I don’t care if people think I look fat or skinny. Hot or not. They get to hang with me, should be enough for them. lol No go and have a good time. Better to go and not have a great time than to regret it.
Hear, hear! I like the attitude 🙂
LOL I am glad you do. 🙂 I write a humor/satire blog. I try to have fun all the time.
Cool I just checked it out. Looks great 🙂
Great. I hope you like it enough to keep up. I am following you now 🙂
I had no interest in my high school classmates when I was IN high school; I haven’t exactly gained an interest in the (cough – almost 20) years since graduating. Once every few years though, I go back to my home town to visit family. During those visits, it’s fairly common for me to run into someone I knew as a teenager. It doesn’t seem to me that anyone has changed. Bitches are still bitches; assholes are still assholes. The nice folks got the hell out of Dodge.
Fair call! It’s funny the crappy folk from your school are still in your home town. Do you think they got so caught up at school they peaked too early and that’s why they never left town?
If they ever peaked at all…
Yes, that was snark. 😉
In all fairness, though: Some people can’t fathom moving outside of their comfort zones. Moving beyond the borders of one’s own mind can be terrifying; let alone stepping outside the boundaries of one’s home town.
Is it right? Is it wrong? All I know is that it’s not what I wanted. I can only decide what’s good for *me* and I don’t have the time, energy, interest, or inclination to impose my will on others. Especially not the ‘crappy folk’ who have chosen to stay there for their entire lives.
Pingback: High School Reunions: To go or not to go? Part 1 | The Naked Envelope
Since I moved overseas, I was unable to attend the last couple of reunions. I guess it’s not that big a deal, because I see the guys I wanna see when I go back to visit anyway.
I like that point – if you attend, then people can’t bitch about you 😀
Interesting! My 5-year reunion is coming up and I’m shocked at how many people have gotten married or had kids in that short time. I also live near the best bakery ever (though mine doesn’t do sausage rolls), so I guess that would be my ‘defense’ too!
It’d be nice to see what people are up to, but I feel like it would only be fun if your real high school friends went too. Either way, I won’t be going to mine because I moved abroad.
All true! Loved it. Now I want a sausage roll!
It is just the randomness of meeting up with people who you just happened to be in school with that bugs me. I didn’t really go to school to go to school, if you see what I mean. I had to, by law, and that was where my friends mostly were, but I didn’t like most people there. And as a drop out, I do not get invited to the regular reunions. I also had friends in other schools, or who were older. So I still have to say that the unofficial reunion is the way to go.
Well, my 20-year reunion is coming up next year, and the one thing that makes me hesitant about going is that I had a tiff with my best friend back then and we went our separate ways after that. I’m nervous that she’ll show up and be reminded of all of that crap. The dispute was over a stupid boy, and I’ve missed her dearly, but we never reunited. So yeah, I will be attending my reunion, but with a little bit of trepidation. Hey, there’s always the comfort of knowing that I can just take a swig in the car before heading into the venue. Ahhhhh, relaxation!
My ten year reunion would have been this year. Too bad there wasn’t one. I would have been able to show those bastards how much better I turned out than them.
Or maybe there was a reunion and they didn’t invite me…….
I’m not going to attend my 10-year reunion, as I refuse to believe its been 10 years. I’m not going to be part of some sham event!
I am not going to my 10 year reunion. I was only going for fomo and I was scared that someone was gonna bitch about me. It stressed me out a lot. I was gonna go but on the day, I didn’t want to go. I guess because I lost contact with my high school friends soon after it ended. I am not proud or content of my achievements. For example, I’m not skinny or ridculously beautiful, I haven’t travelled much. Like sure I did my degree but I don’t have a husband or children. I know what you are going to say “Your life shouldn’t be defined by husband and children”. I am a woman, society and my family have been talking about children since I was little. Also I don’t want to do the ‘circle thing’ repeating the same thing over and over to everyone.