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Post by bc2ca on May 15, 2022 19:12:10 GMT
People do change and high school is such a weird time for most kids. I am glad I went, I was hesitant. If we had another, I would probably go. I went to our 10th and 20th. The 10th had 3 days of events with a Friday night grad only cocktails, Sat night dinner/dance with guests and a Sunday family picnic. My friends and I all skipped the picnic, so I can't comment on how well attended it was. Sat night too many people had a SO other to entertain and most people stuck to their table group. I'd rather have gone somewhere else for dinner/dancing with my group of friends. Friday night was a blast. I think all reunions since have just been a grad only cocktail party. For our 20th, I was pregnant with DS and spent the whole evening reconnecting with a former neighbor who dropped out in HS and was crashing the party. He'd gone on to get his PhD by this time and was an international expert in his field. Sadly he died before our 25th. I haven't made a reunion since, mostly because the organizers moved them to Sept, which was a harder month for me to get away. We are almost always in my hometown in July/August. Three of my former classmates are still my closest friends and one still lives in our hometown so she has attended most reunions and gives us the rundown the next day. I wouldn't overthink what to wear and expect most attendees will look 40 years older, with less hair and more wrinkles and bulges.
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ellen
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,748
Jun 30, 2014 12:52:45 GMT
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Post by ellen on May 15, 2022 19:19:47 GMT
If it was local, I would go and I'd wear a cute summer dress. If it was cooler I would add a jean jacket.
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Post by maryland on May 15, 2022 19:31:55 GMT
I have no interest in going to mine. But we are 5 hours away, so we would have to travel. I loved high school and had a lot of friends in high school. But I went off to college and had a different group of friends. When I was in college and law school, we didn't have social media, etc. We really didn't keep in touch, even with great friends in school. And I have no idea how to get in touch with female friends if they changed their last name. But I would love to "catch up" using social media if I could find them.
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Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,987
Jun 25, 2014 23:13:23 GMT
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Post by Nanner on May 15, 2022 19:37:36 GMT
I don't go to them. I'm in contact with those I want to be in contact with and have no desire to go.
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 15, 2022 19:48:35 GMT
Graduated in a class of 600+ from an inner city school. I didn’t have a ton of friends and most weren’t in my grade anyway. I graduated, my family moved and I never looked back. The few friends I did have I fell out of touch with. I likely wouldn’t have anything in common with them now so I’ve never looked them up. There are several people I would be exceedingly happy to *NEVER* see again, and for that reason alone I’ve never gone to any of mine.
DH graduated the following year from a large suburban school and he hasn’t gone to any of his either. The handful of really good friends he had in HS he keeps in touch with on Facebook.
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Post by auntkelly on May 15, 2022 20:25:08 GMT
I graduated in a class of 147 in a small town. I've kept in touch w/ a lot of my classmates and I've gone to just about every reunion and had a great time.
I don't think you should pressure yourself to go if you really don't want to attend. However, if you are curious about what your classmates are like now and you think you might have a good time, then go. You can always leave if you are not having fun.
I have a friend who is a classmate who refuses to go to any of our reunions. Unlike me, she has mostly bad memories of her high school days and doesn't really want to have anything to do w/ our classmates. I tease her about being a "reverse snob," but I really don't think she is giving our classmates a fair shake. I just don't think she realizes that just about everyone has grown and matured since high school. I think she would be surprised at how nice people were to her if she came to one of our reunions.
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QueenoftheSloths
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Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on May 15, 2022 21:19:17 GMT
I have a friend who is a classmate who refuses to go to any of our reunions. Unlike me, she has mostly bad memories of her high school days and doesn't really want to have anything to do w/ our classmates. I tease her about being a "reverse snob," but I really don't think she is giving our classmates a fair shake. I just don't think she realizes that just about everyone has grown and matured since high school. I think she would be surprised at how nice people were to her if she came to one of our reunions. I haven't stayed in touch with anyone from high school and like your friend, most of my memories of that time are not good ones. I have no desire to go to a class reunion where everyone is remembering the "good old days" when they were not good for me because of the actions of those people. I have no desire to spend an evening with people who bullied and harassed me and warped the shape of my life with their actions just because now they have grown and matured.
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mich5481
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Posts: 2,696
Oct 2, 2017 23:20:46 GMT
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Post by mich5481 on May 15, 2022 21:25:29 GMT
I went to my 10 year reunion and had fun.
My 20 year reunion was a disappointment. All of my friends from college posted about how their 20 year reunions were fantastic, well planned, and all the cliques melted away. The people planning my 20th mostly lived out of state and were super late about getting the dates, and then changed them. It was originally scheduled to coincide with homecoming, which is unusual for my school. After announcing the date, they pushed it back a week because of the venue - a club owned by the brother of one of our classmates. They then suddenly announced it was cancelled because not enough people had purchased tickets, but they never announced a hard deadline for the tickets, so it took most people by surprise. I know a lot of people who had moved away couldn't attend because it was early November, so between having to deal with kids and school/childcare and travel so close to the holidays, they weren't going. One guy had scheduled a post reunion event at a local park for people to bring their families, and he held it in spite of the cancellation. I went, as I had gone home to dog sit for my dad, and I knew maybe two people there. As a single, childless person, I felt very out of place.
The real kicker was the people who had planned the original reunion event decided to get together and they went on a girls' trip to Chicago. I found out from the guy who planned the park event, and then saw it plastered all over social media. I knew most of them through our involvement in student government and extracurriculars, but I was never part of their friend group.
I've mainly kept in touch with people only via social media since high school, but the whole Chicago thing left a bad taste in my mouth.
I highly doubt we'll ever have another reunion.
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MorningPerson
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,543
Location: Central Pennsylvania
Jul 4, 2014 21:35:44 GMT
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Post by MorningPerson on May 15, 2022 21:27:38 GMT
I’ve been to most of my class reunions and really like attending.
I think my favorite part is seeing the blurring of lines that existed between groups in high school. I love getting to know old classmates from the jocks to the nerds to the druggies to the brainiacs and every group in between. We’ve all grown up and I love seeing who we’ve become.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 12:34:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2022 21:29:51 GMT
I will never attend another class reunion. Only the popular ones attend and most of them are still the same mean girls and bullies they were in high school. One of my biggest bullies passed away from cancer and everyone fawned over him. There's already talk of dedicating the next reunion in his memory. *gag*
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 12:34:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2022 21:32:14 GMT
I graduated in a class of 147 in a small town. I've kept in touch w/ a lot of my classmates and I've gone to just about every reunion and had a great time. I don't think you should pressure yourself to go if you really don't want to attend. However, if you are curious about what your classmates are like now and you think you might have a good time, then go. You can always leave if you are not having fun. I have a friend who is a classmate who refuses to go to any of our reunions. Unlike me, she has mostly bad memories of her high school days and doesn't really want to have anything to do w/ our classmates. I tease her about being a "reverse snob," but I really don't think she is giving our classmates a fair shake. I just don't think she realizes that just about everyone has grown and matured since high school. I think she would be surprised at how nice people were to her if she came to one of our reunions. People do not "grow up and change." They either get better at hiding their shitty side or find new people to bully.
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Post by librarylady on May 15, 2022 21:52:23 GMT
One of my friends went to her HS reunion (I forget what year).
She didn't really want to spend the evening with small talk etc. She went to the hotel hosting the event. She sat in the lobby and greeted those whom she wanted to touch base with and then went home.
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Post by auntkelly on May 15, 2022 21:55:38 GMT
I have a friend who is a classmate who refuses to go to any of our reunions. Unlike me, she has mostly bad memories of her high school days and doesn't really want to have anything to do w/ our classmates. I tease her about being a "reverse snob," but I really don't think she is giving our classmates a fair shake. I just don't think she realizes that just about everyone has grown and matured since high school. I think she would be surprised at how nice people were to her if she came to one of our reunions. I haven't stayed in touch with anyone from high school and like your friend, most of my memories of that time are not good ones. I have no desire to go to a class reunion where everyone is remembering the "good old days" when they were not good for me because of the actions of those people. I have no desire to spend an evening with people who bullied and harassed me and warped the shape of my life with their actions just because now they have grown and matured. I'm sorry you were bullied and harassed. I can see why you wouldn't want to spend time w/ anyone who did that to you. My friend was not bullied or harassed. She was just kind of quiet and nerdy. I think she is assuming that everyone is still stuck in the same old cliques they were in high school, and they haven't branched out since high school, which really isn't true of my friends.
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Post by librarylady on May 15, 2022 21:56:32 GMT
I went to my 10th. I really wanted to attend the 20th or 25th (I forget now) but the invitation came only 2 weeks prior to the event and I had plans. I did write a letter to the ones who organized the event and asked that the date be announced much sooner in the future as those who had to travel needed more time to arrange a trip. I later learned that the person who was supposed to notify me didn't know me so blew it off until the last minute.
After our 50th, the 2 organizers announced (via email) that they were not going to organize again and there would be no more reunions.
If someone notifies them about a life event for classmates and email is sent to the contact list.
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Post by cat2007 on May 15, 2022 22:06:30 GMT
I went to my 35th and will never go to another one. I went to a catholic high school with 48 in my class and like others have said, the cliques were still the cliques and DH and I hung out with my core group of friends. The only reason that I'm glad I went is that one of my classmates passed away the following Fall due to complications from sinus surgery of all things.
My friends and I keep in touch and that is good enough for me.
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Post by auntkelly on May 15, 2022 22:10:41 GMT
I graduated in a class of 147 in a small town. I've kept in touch w/ a lot of my classmates and I've gone to just about every reunion and had a great time. I don't think you should pressure yourself to go if you really don't want to attend. However, if you are curious about what your classmates are like now and you think you might have a good time, then go. You can always leave if you are not having fun. I have a friend who is a classmate who refuses to go to any of our reunions. Unlike me, she has mostly bad memories of her high school days and doesn't really want to have anything to do w/ our classmates. I tease her about being a "reverse snob," but I really don't think she is giving our classmates a fair shake. I just don't think she realizes that just about everyone has grown and matured since high school. I think she would be surprised at how nice people were to her if she came to one of our reunions. People do not "grow up and change." They either get better at hiding their shitty side or find new people to bully. My friend was not bullied or harassed in high school. She just didn't have any confidence in high school and she was miserable because she wanted to be popular. She thinks that if she went to one of our reunions, she would be ignored because she wasn't popular when we went to high school in the late 70s. I think I've grown up and changed a lot since high school, and I think most of my classmates have as well. I don't think my group of friends was ever mean to anyone, and we certainly didn't bully or harass anyone. However, most of us had pretty limited interests in high school and therefore we didn't take the time to really get to know people in our class who had different interests than we did. Now, when we have reunions we end up visiting w/ a lot of classmates we never really got to know in high school. People don't stick to their old cliques from high school at the reunions. We've all gotten more mature and realize that there is more to life than popularity in high school. That's what I meant by growing up and changing.
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J u l e e
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Posts: 6,531
Location: Cincinnati
Jun 28, 2014 2:50:47 GMT
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Post by J u l e e on May 15, 2022 22:21:26 GMT
I went to my 10th and had a lot of fun. I think we’ve had two since then but I couldn’t make either. My 40th is in two years and I’ll go if we have one.
I had a great time in high school. We had about 350 people in our graduating class and I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t want to see. We really had mostly nice people in our class who were all decent to each other. I’m also not on Facebook, so I don’t regularly see updates from anyone, so I would like seeing everyone again.
I would just wear whatever I felt comfortable and cute in. No one will care.
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Post by lisacharlotte on May 15, 2022 22:47:36 GMT
I’ve never attended a class reunion. I went to 2 high schools on opposite sides of the country. HS #1 I was with that group of kids 6-9th grade. HS #2 is was with 10-12th grade. The second high school was in a much smaller city and most of the class was together from kindergarten. My friendships were rather shallow for both. I also was not popular in high school. It was something I endured until I could graduate and leave to see the world. I am FB friends with classmates from both schools.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 12:34:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2022 23:30:05 GMT
My high school years were some of the most awful of my life. I didn’t go to school with any of my best friends and there’s really no one I talk to or want to see. (I’ve got friends going back to 4th grade and I’m pushing 54 yrs old so I do have life-long friends)
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
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Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on May 16, 2022 2:19:35 GMT
DH and I both went to our 10 year reunions with each other. We did not go to the same HS. We won’t likely go to another. It was ho hum. I see those I want to socialize with on Facebook.
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Post by peasapie on May 16, 2022 2:29:08 GMT
I loved my two reunions, but you don’t sound like you want to go so I can’t imagine why you would. I didn’t love HS and graduated early just to get out, but all these years later? We’re all just people. I felt fondly seeing many of them and just remembering them as kids. I dunno, I guess I’m sappy.
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amom23
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Jun 27, 2014 12:39:18 GMT
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Post by amom23 on May 16, 2022 2:49:30 GMT
I went to my 10th year and it was like being back in HS all over again (and not the good parts). I keep in touch with many classmates through Facebook and that is good enough for me.
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peasquared
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Posts: 5,681
Jul 6, 2014 23:59:59 GMT
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Post by peasquared on May 16, 2022 3:07:49 GMT
I went to my 10 year, only because I happened to be living in the same city at the time. It really wasn't enough time for anyone to have changed much, and seemed too much like high school. After I moved out of state, I never went to another. No regrets at all. I keep in touch with the few I really care about and that's good enough for me.
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Post by freecharlie on May 16, 2022 3:52:12 GMT
I would rather have a junior high reunion. Those were really fun days. Me too
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on May 16, 2022 10:52:19 GMT
I never had the slightest interest in attending high school reunions and kept in touch with very few people. I did go to the 40th because I had moved back to that town and married my high school sweetheart. It was a fun evening, but basically felt like chit chat with strangers for the most part.
I have attended many college reunions and stay in touch with so many people from those years. My best friends are all from college.
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camcas
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Posts: 4,112
Jun 26, 2014 3:41:19 GMT
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Post by camcas on May 16, 2022 11:35:58 GMT
Hard NO from me No interest
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Post by MZF on May 16, 2022 12:26:03 GMT
I've never attended any and don't regret not going. Next year will be my 50th. DH has gone to a couple of his and has always enjoyed it.
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Anita
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Jun 27, 2014 2:38:58 GMT
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Post by Anita on May 16, 2022 15:10:30 GMT
I went to my 30th and that was enough. I only had 40 people in my class. I kept in touch with the ones I needed to.
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The Great Carpezio
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Something profound goes here.
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Jun 25, 2014 21:50:33 GMT
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Post by The Great Carpezio on May 16, 2022 15:41:21 GMT
I haven't read the responses yet.
I went to my 10, 15 (just informal picnic and I happened to be in town) and 20th (which I helped organize). Our 30th was during Covid and was cancelled.
I did not go to my 5th and I think there was an informal 25th that I skipped.
I graduated with, I think, 90 students. I had a mostly "nice" class and, again with a few exceptions, not super cliquey. I moved to that town in 6th grade, and kinda felt like I had the "new girl" label until the last couple years of high school--which is when I started to bloom more. I was a "get along with most people" type of person (still am), but stayed on the outskirts with some of the more "troubled kids" until maybe 10th/11th grade. I wasn't super popular but not unpopular. Not a jock, not considered an intellectual (although, again, I came into my own in high school and did well the last couple years).
I did like to party, and many had the perception that since my parents owned a drug store, we were "well-off" townies in our small farming community in southern MN.
Anyway, I enjoyed my 10th, but people still seemed to move to their comfort zones and didn't mingle as much as the 20th.
I thought the 20th was great. People showed up that hadn't been back for 20 years, and most people seemed to have moved out of their comfort zones and most mingled a lot. I thought it was fun, and I am an introvert by nature, and although I drank a lot when younger, I don't drink much now and only had a couple drinks that night and felt pretty comfortable. So, that is to say, I wasn't a "peaked in high school" type, and I am pretty different than I was in high school, and I still enjoyed the 20th and since we skipped the 30th, I would imagine I will go to the 40th.
ETA: My Dh has been to ZERO reunions. He went to Mankato East, so quite a bit bigger. He has no urge to go to any.
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peppermintpatty
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Jun 26, 2014 17:47:08 GMT
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Post by peppermintpatty on May 16, 2022 15:45:19 GMT
I've never gone to any. HS was horrible for me. Tormented/teased etc. I kept in touch with those who I wanted to. The rest can go to... My class had 1000 in it and I don't know most of them. The only real person of note right now is Rochelle Wollensky (that is her married name). She is the current CDC director.
The people who organize the reunions are the worst of the worst. They were the most vile human beings in high school and I have zero interest in ever seeing them again.
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