WhaHappen?

Does the thought of a High School Reunion arouse the same dread as writing a will? Recently, several people mentioned to me that their 20- or 30-year high school reunion is coming up next year. And their eyes don’t particularly twinkle with excitement as they mumble about it. So, at least from what I’ve heard over the years, many post-juveniles (at least around Southern California) aren’t thrilled about going to their reunion.

I can only guess at why some people look forward to attending. But I definitely have some ideas about why others would rather have their toenails plucked out. So first, here’s my assumptions about why some grownups look forward to their reunion:

They want to reconnect with their homies. Over the years, you probably wondered what ever happened to the kids you played with on the baseball team, or jammed with in the band, or drilled with in JROTC, or whichever clique you hung with.

They hope to meet someone that they didn’t know before. If you went to a big high school like I did, there are alot of kids you missed out on knowing. If you go through the Classmates site, how many names out of those shown for your high school year are unrecognizable?

They want to share with others what they’ve been up to for the last 20 years. This reason also assumes that they’re excited by their accomplishments. Therefore, it wouldn’t apply if say, someone’s been in prison and just got out. Also some people might want to attend in order to network for their business, so it’s an ideal opportunity.

So what about the entire rest of us who shrink away from the reunion announcement? By which I mean, myself and the 2 others I polled yesterday. This is the response I got:

They’re already keeping in touch with certain people from school.There’s no desire to renew any other acquaintances. The friends they had from back then are still in their social circle today.

They’re hesitant to meet new people at this particular point in their lives. People in their 30’s and 40’s are busy managing current relationships in their daily routine. It could be totally overwhelming to nurture and establish new friendships when we’re already balancing work, home, and our online communities for god’s sake.

They don’t want to necessarily divulge the details of their personal/professional life. And especially to almost-strangers that basically have not been orbiting within their universe for the last few decades. Someone groaned to me that he felt he had to justify a level of professional success to his classmates. For crying out loud, he’s an attorney! What about the rest of us regular Joe Schmo’s? The point is: going to a reunion for some people means enduring a few hours of awkwardness. And perhaps having to answer that question: WhaHappen?

There’s got to be as many reasons to go or not go as the number of people getting their reunion invitations. Let me know whether you’re going (or went) to yours (or if you declined) and either way, why? Also, if you attended, was it worth it? And if you didn’t, did you regret it?