My high school wasn’t much like the ones you see in the movies, where everyone is strictly aligned with a click, and no one gets along. Sure, there were clicks — I graduated with 500 other people, so of course people will fall naturally into one group or another — but there was plenty of inter-click mingling. It wasn’t like Mean Girls or Clueless or the Breakfast Club, unless time has done a trick on my memory. Now college on the other hand …
All of that is to say my 10-year high school reunion is this weekend, and even though I’ve been claiming for several years that Facebook makes reunions irrelevant I’ve still been planning for some time to go. I mean, I didn’t love or hate high school any more than the average student, but I’d still like to gloat about how awesome my life is reminisce and hug a few old friends.
I made this decision, of course, before I found it was taking place in August, one of my hell months at work. And before I found out that I’d have to work up until Friday morning before making the six-hour drive to Memphis and partying Friday night and Saturday night. And then get up early Sunday and make the six-hour return trip only to work that afternoon.
Have I mentioned I’ve been working 12-hour days pretty much six days a week lately?
I’ve noticed on the Facebook event page for the reunion that there are plenty of people NOT coming. And I get that, to an extent. I get that to the extent of living beyond a six hour drive from Memphis, having multiple kids to juggle, having to work, not being able to afford the tickets and not having anywhere to stay.
But I’ve noticed that there are plenty of people who still live in Memphis, don’t have any kids, don’t have to work and can afford the tickets who aren’t coming. And to those people, I say WHAT THE HELL?
I mean, if I can work a trip to see them into my craptastic schedule, the least they can do is SHOW UP, amiright?
Sheesh. The nerve.
BTW, I am proud to announce that I found a cocktail dress for the Saturday evening portion of the reunion for $25 at a local boutique. Looking good on the cheap, FTW!
*This post brought to you by sheer exhaustion.
I have to plan my 10-year reunion for next year, as I was voted the Class Historian. Sheesh. From 3,000 miles away, too. Not looking forward to the planning of it, let alone the going to it!
Uggggh, I would have hated planning this reunion! If I were you, I’d insist on everyone coming out to SF!
Way to go on finding a cheap and fab dress. I can’t wait to hear about the reunion. I went to my 10 year and didn’t regret it, although I did waffle about going for a while.
I came home to Knoxville for my 10-year reunion. It was 1998. I flew in from NYC, where I lived and worked at the time. You can bet I had some of those thoughts: I’ll show THEM what I’ve accomplished, ha. As I walked up to the venue, though, I was almost terrified. Those old feelings of high-schoolish insecurity rushed through my veins. I had to stop walking, say out loud to myself, “Becky. C’mon. Just go in and have fun.” And I did. It was great to reconnect with some folks I really liked but hadn’t seen since graduation.
I think the internet, email, and particularly Facebook have really changed the way people think about reunions. That curiosity about what happened to so-and-so can be satisfied from a desk chair. When preparing to go to my 20th in 2008, most of the communication and planning was done via email and a Facebook group, not a lone letter received in the mail. I went to my 20th, but it was a different experience because the questions I asked were “so how’s your new house?” instead of “where are you living now?”
Of course I’m not suggesting that Facebook takes the place of IRL events and friendships. Those are the relationships that count. It’s just another evolution of communication preferences. I think it would be fun to live in a time before telephones, and send and receive those pages-long letters that used to pass between friends and lovers.
In a way, I feel like knowing lots of things about my old classmates via Facebook will make it feel less time has gone by. I’m on the fence. Part of me wishes I didn’t know as much, but I think knowing what I do know makes the experience much less scary. I might be less inclined to go if I knew very little about what everyone was up to.
That said, I do hate that letter writing has become a lost art.
I went to my 10 year reunion to meet all the first wives and husbands. I went to the 20 year to meet the second wives and husbands.
title reference to mean girls – haven’t even read this post yet, but love it already.