Seer666

I blew my ten year off. In all honesty, I hated most of them, and the ones I did like I'm either still in contact with or have died. Mostly the latter of the two. I thought about showing up just to see how fucked up some of their lives have become, but then I realised, I really don't care. They ment nothing to me then, they mean nothing to me now. I got better things to spend my time and money on.

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Bad spellers of the world untie!!!

I am the one you warned me of

I seem to have misplaced the bullet with your name on it, but I have a whole box addressed to occupant.

JimmyTheHutt

It's worth it just to see how the game has changed. Its the same game, only more polite. Occasionally, you will find someone who really changed after high school, and that does make it entertaining. At mine, I ran into a guy who was a complete wanna be popular kid in high school. His entire life was wrapped up into trying to be cool. However, at the reunion, I find out that he dropped out of college, joined the Air Force and is now married and living in Turkey. The best part of it all was the fact that he just did not give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut what ANYONE thought about his life. He just wanted to come back to see a few people he thought were worthwhile.

Besides, you can always just say what ever the heck you think to the people there. It no longer affects your life at all. It makes the whole experience very liberating.

Veritas et Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

__________________
Think Jabba, only with more hair and vestigal legs....

"This isn't a nightmare, its real. Nightmare's end."
-ShadowDancer

abaya

Alright, update!! I just found a massive deal on Delta airlines for that weekend, so I snatched up the tickets: $242, baby! That is SO LOW to fly from PHL to SEA, it's unbelievable. Ktspktsp is coming along too, at that price... he'll get to see all my crazy HS peeps.

So we'll be in Seattle for 48 hours, basically, but it should be a great time.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Grancey

I hope you have a wonderful time. And remember to bring back the stories for the rest of us.

__________________
Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.

Psycho Dad

Let us know how the trip went. It would be interesting to see where your experience falls between those who enjoyed reunions and those who didn't.

__________________
Don't always trust the opinions of experts.

Meditrina

I think it would be different for each person. I chose not to go to my HS reunion for several reasons. I was extremely shy in HS and I doubt anyone would remember me, many of my friends were a year younger than me, and the money was an issue too.

I am glad you found good airline rates. I hope you have a great time at your reunion.

__________________
"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras

abaya

Thanks, guys! I've gotten a couple of PM's about this thread, so I just wanted to let you all know that the reunion is actually Oct 27th. So I can't update it till then, but I will do so very soon afterwards.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

abaya

Pre-reunion update:

I've been looking at the website for my reunion, and I noticed they had a myspace.com page... yeah, I hate myspace, but I had to take a look. Holy shit! There were 82 people already added. Most of them were "popular" people, but there were a few others, too... and WOW, have some of them changed. And some have not changed at all.

It looks like most of the popular girls have kids already, with many of them being married (and quite a few unmarried or divorced, no surprise there). And there are a few Christians (I was one of them, back then) who have 3 kids already... in 10 years! sheesh. And the popular guys appear to all be losers, lol... getting fat and lazy. I love seeing the more marginal people... one of the ditzy blonde girls is now an ER doctor, the nerds are making tons of money, and the tools are, well, still tools.

Anyway, I almost don't need a reunion, thanks to myspace. But I'm not adding myself on there (I have a blank page and fake name, just so I can access others' profiles)... they're just gonna have to wait for the reunion to see what happened to me. But damn! I can't wait to just get a look at all these people and see what happened to them. Hehe.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Gilda

Mine was about a month ago*, and I didn't go. Why give all of those people another chance to bully and belittle me and make me feel worthless? There isn't a person I went to school with that I'd want to see again, and I'm certain that the invitation I got was a formality and nobody would actually want me there.

It certainly isn't the valedictorian, at least at my school. I was valedictorian of my graduating class, and I had nothing to do with organizing the event.

Gilda


*My school was so small that they hold reunions only in even numbered years for two classes at a time, so if you graduated in '95 like I did, you get 11 and 21 year reunions.

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Elphaba

This was exactly what I found at my reunion! The jocks still lived in their glory days of HS while currently working as stockers. The most popular cheerleader at the time, was smashed and yelling obscenities at the MC.

It was all very surreal.

StanT

I've never been to one. I'm probably only interested in a dozen or so people from high school. I'm in touch with half of them and the others are less likely to attend a reunion than I am. Every couple years, someone I barely knew in high school "finds" me. I haven't quite found the tactful way to tell them that I'd rather stay lost.

I went to high school and moved on, I have no desire to relive it.

highthief

All the guys I hung out with are dead basically - killed during aremd robberies and of ODs.

Seriously ... oh, and the school no longer exists.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

Elphaba

Oh my. I would threadjack to ask how you escaped the fate of your classmates?

Psycho Dad

You are one smart lady. But I bet you are wrong on so many levels there.

__________________
Don't always trust the opinions of experts.

Lady Sage

I was obscenely obese in highschool and always made fun of. Coming home in tears was.... normal.

I went to my 10 year reunion because I had gone from a size 30 to a size 10 and wanted to show it off. It was fabulous to be looking great in a form fitting dress and see the people who had made fun of me in their new more plump states. I did not poke fun I just went had fun reaquainting myself with old friends and being seen. The looks, dropped jaws and is that... SAGE?????????? made it all worth the cost.

Gilda

Thank you. I think I'm probably right. Let's just say I was a very different person in high school. I've grown and changed a lot for the better.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Grancey

Abaya, have fun at the reunion in October. And.......
Have a Happy, Happy Birthday..........today.......................

__________________
Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.

highthief

Free will, basically.

We all make our choices, my family background was a lot better, so I had a little more moral and ethical guidance to keep me on the straight and narrow once HS was over and the real world began.

But yeah, I coulda ended up doing something stupid, too.

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Si vis pacem parabellum.

abaya

Awww. Thank you, Grancey!

I'm getting more and more excited about the reunion, just for the chance to get the scoop on everyone. I realize more and more that I really AM a social scientist at heart (not just because it's my profession) ... I simply love watching people, hearing their stories, seeing how they've grown or regressed or not changed at all. Hell, you could say I'm going to the reunion to "gather data"... like a panel study (where social scientists interview the same cohort of people every 10 years to measure some change or another).

Well, it's obvious that one thing hasn't changed for me: I'm still a nerd! And still very proud to be one.

Class of '96, woo-hoo!! (Damn, I feel old...)

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Maleigh99

So how did it go?

abaya

Oh, I totally missed this thread... sorry, folks! Something about getting married and having two weddings in the middle of all that, got me distracted.

So my reunion was pretty normal, actually. Nothing weird, nothing depressing, nothing shocking. A lot of people whom I would have loved to see didn't show up... but a few people did, and it was GREAT to see them again. As for the rest of the crowd... well, I didn't talk much with the people I never talked to in the first place, so I didn't really notice how much they had changed (jocks, snobby girls, etc). I stuck to familiar faces and avoided uncomfortable ones. It helped that I had a "core" group to go back to... two of my best friends from high school are still my best friends (they had just been two of my bridesmaids two weeks before the reunion!), and so the three of us congregated together when we got tired of working the crowd. My husband was also there, which was a source of comfort and perspective.

I suppose the oddest thing was that when everyone asked what I was doing, and I said, "Getting my PhD," everyone said, "Oh of course, I wouldn't expect anything else, blah blah blah... always the smartypants, weren't you?" I was thinking, hey man, these people haven't seen what I've been through in 10 years. I was thinking, they knew me when I was a 4.0 student and all that shit... they didn't see me become a total slacker in college, getting C's and not caring, not knowing what to do with my life, etc etc. I haven't been very ambitious the whole time... and even the last few years that I've been in grad school, I've never felt particularly impassioned or genius. I'm just doing my work, and they pay me to do it, and that's called grad school for now. So I didn't like how everyone just slotted me into the old image of "nerd," I guess, even though it's not a negative thing. Not that anyone wants to hear long, complicated stories at a reunion, anyway.

So basically, it was fine, mildly entertaining, and I'm glad I went because of the few people I did get back in touch with again. But in the end, I was quit happy to leave and spend time with my two best friends and our significant others, and leave it at that.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

magictoy

It's interesting to observe that jocks seem to be the only people in this thread that got fat and bald.

Angst, indeed.

little_tippler

My ten year is still two years away but it's not a tradition out here to have that kind if "get-together". There has been talk about something because one of my best friends, who was at HS with me, always loves to see people again and know what they're up to. Honestly though, even though I'll probably go, the people I really did want to keep in touch with from HS I have done. That makes about 3 or 4 people in total. Everyone else I can do without frankly...they weren't my friends or nice to me, so I don't really want to meet them to know if they're happy and successful in life - and I don't have the "rubbing-it-in" instinct in me

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Ourcrazymodern?

I went to my tenth and didn't enjoy it enough to go to my twentieth. Those who had stayed more or less "home" seemed a little dull and cliquish, and those who had migrated seemed to have changed in all directions. Probably it was just me, but I found it hard to relate.
It's unlikely I'll go to any more; I'd prefer to save the money.

__________________
BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

jth

I wonder for myself now... i think my 10th year didn't happen or no one tried to contact me. I'm not sure, strangely I was back in that town all summer long. I'm not hard to find, if anyone used google they would find me on the 1st hit.

Either way, I would have only attended because I was in town at the time it would have happened. I enjoyed highschool to a certain degree, I was well known because I played in the school's best student band as lead guitarist, so I was "popular" to a certain degree. However, Highschool was 10 years ago and anyone that I cared about enough to keep in touch with are on my IM list or I have their email address.

Some people perhaps I would be interested to see how far they fell since Highschool when good looks or being in the "in crowd" didn't matter anymore. Perhaps if they have a 15 year I'll come back and sell them my albums hahhaha

__________________
"A real leader faces the music, even if he doesn't like the tune." - unknown quote

Drider_it

2003 we had a sherrif election.. i voted came out into the park to walk to my truck and saw and old friend... then another.. pretty soon i saw most of my old class of '93.

I was in a rage a bit cuz none of the asshats called me or bothered to inform me of it.. yet again HS bs prep bastages.

And boy howdy let me tell ya. people change. all the snobs that wouldnt grace me with a look blabbed till eternity .. there was the typical small minded group of jocks that never change.. funny thing is I could honestly say in 10 years i could kick thier collective arses now. made me a bit happy seeing them.

the hottie cheerleaders.. and the flag line in band.. well lets just say 10 years puts on alot of weight. I had everyone say i havent changed at all in my looks except for glasses.. and im proud to say it lifted my spirits to have several of them give me that approving side ways up and down as i passed them.

the sad part was the ones that wasnt there. they did something with their life. moved outta this crappy small town and did something. also the fact that 12 of us are dead in 10 years didnt raise my hopes too much.

all in all.. i didnt give a rats behind for 90% of them in HS and I remember every mocking detail from those days being hazed and such. Old wounds never heal .. i said high.. bye came home to my wife and kids .. and thought

and pardon my language.. "fuck'em I got all the memories and life i want right here"

__________________
It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

Wilkerson

In more than 30 years I have never tried reuniting with those idiots I was forced to school with. On a more positive note; however, I have seen many of them listed in the obituaries, so at least I can see where they have not successfully gone. So you see? I really do care about them, why else would I check the obits every day? (same holds true for former teachers of mine)

soundmotor

What I remember about my 10th & 20th were the number of women from my class who'd married badly, divorced, & shown up at the reunion looking for love again or at least a good time.

Aahhh, to have been single......

spindles

I know this is a bit of a resurrection, but my 20th reunion is on in a couple of months. I'm probably going to go (though the 15 hour return trip in the car for a pissup is a bit daunting). I made my wife go to her 20th last year even though she was reluctant and she quite enjoyed the night out (though hers was just a train trip into central Sydney, so no real travel issue).

I *know* I have very little in common with 99% of the people that will be there, but I'm still interested to see who is where doing what.

I'm supposed to write a blurb -i.e. what I've done for the last 20 years in a paragraph or two), which I'm not really looking forward to - I mean, I never made the starting side for the Aussie cricket team I can just see this being a bit of paper/booklet that is discarded when I walk out of the function.

They have also organised 4 things:
1. drinks in a pub on Friday night
2. walk through the school grounds Saturday arvo
3. main dinner sat night
4. sunday picnic

I'll probably skip 1 and 4.

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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

spindles

Well, a quick update. My 20 year reunion was the weekend just gone. It didn't start well as I had car trouble half way home, which turned a 7 hour trip into a 12 hour one, completed in a hire car, but it was definitely worth going. I'm well aware that I won't contact 99.9% of people I saw there, but that is not the point.

Surprises for me were

• the number of people who have returned to live in the home town
• the amount of people who were generally happy to see everyone else

The Friday night drinks were in a bar that is run by one of the girls from my year, so there was no real chance of being booted out + most people after the Saturday night dinner ended up back there as well (well planned as the restaurant we ate at was literally 5 minutes walk from the Pub.

The walk through the school was weird - so much has changed to the layout of the school in 20 years - almost easier to point out things that are the same!

I had a long chat with a girl I have seen quite a lot after school (she is one that now lives back in the home town). I had a nice chat to the girl I took to the year 12 formal (the prom) and I got a private chuckle out of the people who got fat and have less hair

For me this also doubled as a chance to see my grandmothers, one of whom is getting pretty close to the end (97 next month).

And the car? Met my wife's parents in the town where it was towed after breaking down and towed it home. Fingers crossed it doesn't cost me a bomb to fix it

In summary - if you get the chance - GO! even if you are only going to see people for one night. 20 year was much more interesting than 10 (as people have done so much more).

__________________
who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

abaya

Glad to hear that you went, and that it was a positive experience! (Though that sucks about the car.)

Yeah, I think the 20 will be better than the 10... more interesting stories and life experiences, at least. But I have 8 more years to bide my time for that one, lol.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

inBOIL

My 10th is coming up and I'm not going. I didn't socialize much in high school, so I didn't really know these people when we were in school together. Sure, I know names and recognize faces, but only because we were in physical proximity for 4 years. Besides, I didn't have anything to say to these people back then, so what will I have to say to them now?

__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

spindles

Maybe your social skills have improved a bit since then

__________________
who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

CinnamonGirl

Interesting... my 10 year is coming up soon. I had a blast in high school, so no negative feelings there. I admit I'm really not thrilled about hearing the "oh my GAWD, how ARE you?" from people I never really talked to, but there are some people I'm curious about.

Plus, y'know, there's beer. That will make it better

__________________
"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"