Has it Really Been 10 Years?

Posted by Sarahbear on March 14, 2011

Go Tigers!

Yes. It has. I graduated from high school way back in May of 2001. Now I’m faced with a decision.

Should I bother going to my class reunion?

I’m leaning heavily towards no and there are plenty of reasons why.

1. It’s being held on the weekend of my birthday. While there will be a cookout and semi-formal dance I can attend, I think I’d rather do something special with Chad and my family. At least if it was being held when reunions are normally held (homecoming weekend), I could watch a football game and crowning ceremony instead of being forced to make small talk with people I haven’t seen in 10 years.

2. I lived beside a military base, so a lot of people who I grew close to and considered friends moved away before they graduated. They probably aren’t attending.

3. It’s expensive. My husband’s reunion was $50 (he didn’t go). Several of my aunts and uncles graduated from the same high school and their reunions were less than $50. If I want to go it’s going to be $100 for me. $150 if I want to bring Chad. Then we factor in a $60 tank of gas to drive down for the weekend, $100 or so on a hotel room for 2 nights and $100 or so on food for the meals that happen when a planned event isn’t being hosted, and the weekend could easily wind up costing us $500. This for stuff I’m not entirely sure I’m interested in doing.

Because…

4. I don’t even know if I want to pretend to care about what people that I didn’t get along with for 4 years (longer if you count the ones I went to elementary and middle school with) have done with their lives. I’m sure some of them matured and changed their evil ways, but Facebook has been evidence that many of them never bothered to grow up.

Do I really want to go spend my weekend ‘catching up’ with people who talked incessantly about what a whore I was? The people who spread rumors about who I was sleeping with or giving blow jobs to in the school bathroom? The ones who believed the rumors and tried to take advantage of me? The ones who laughed at me and booed during pep rallies when someone on our flag corps made a mistake during a routine? The ones who drew mustaches, pimples and mean words on the posters I had to make when I was nominated for Homecoming Queen?

Not really.

I’m sure I’m guilty of similar offenses as well. I was more than willing to partake in the gossip spreading when the rumors weren’t about me. I barked at a girl who was bow-legged and who people said looked like a bulldog as she walked passed one day (to be fair, my boyfriend was going over to her house after he left my house every day.) I made fun of a girl during a speech in front of my high school band during a yearly banquet. I put itching powder in my friend’s ex-boyfriend’s sweats before he went to weight train. I did many intentionally mean things, and probably many more unintentionally.

The point is, high school was a miserable time for everyone and I do not have a clue why people want to relive it. My mom swears I’ll regret not going. I don’t see how. I don’t have anyone that I want to reconnect with. The people I care about talking to are the ones I already keep in contact with and there aren’t very many of them.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced it would be a huge waste of time and money. Did you go to your reunion? Did you skip it? How do you feel about your choice?