Looking back on the 10-year reunion

I've got to thank Kelly's new GA, Selby, for giving me the idea for this blog post. He posted yesterday about his future high school reunions which had me thinking about my 10 year reunion that I went to back in October 2007.

Since I know that I'm the oldest of the "Blog a Day in May" challengers, I think it's safe to say that I'm the only one that's been to an official high school reunion. To all of you that have yours coming up soon, I recommend going. It is fun, but it's far from reliving high school memories again. I like to reference high school reunions as a party that when you walk in you already know everyone's name but don't care to talk to most of them. It sounds harsh, but go to one and you'll see what I mean. It may also help to add that I graduated with 320 people, of which about 120-130 came to the reunion.

Today's list . . . 5 observations from my high school reunion.

1) Pick a bigger place -- My class pledged in the beginning that they wouldn't have our reunion at the country club in town, too many other classes already did that. So they went one town over to a semi-private golf course and rented out the restaurant/bar. It wasn't big enough and there were too many small rooms that split everyone up, it was cliquish all over again, plus the food was in a separate room and people had to go out on the front and back patios to fit. I have no doubt we were over fire code in the main room, it was crazy. I do give kudos to the bar, beer was a great way to get through the evening even though I had to pay for everything I drank on top of the fee I sent in weeks earlier to RSVP.

2) My twin brother should have gone too -- Too many of the conversations began the same way. "Where are you living these days? What do you do? How is your brother, why isn't he here?" It was like everyone rehearsed what to say, that or I had those questions tattooed on my forehead. I didn't mind too much answering those questions, but after some small talk with a few classmates I ran out of things to say. This whole "twin" thing applies to only me as far as my readers go, but if you had siblings close in age that everyone knew, you can expect a lot of the same questions.

3) The font on the nametags were too small -- We had the premade nametags with the old yearbook pictures on them, but the font couldn't be read beyond about 3 feet. It was too thin and small, the fancy script may have looked good on the computer screen but didn't translate too well in real life. Plus, for the select few names that I couldn't remember, a bigger font would have been appreciated. A lot of names came back instantly, but there were three that I had to read their nametags to jog my memory. Most people changed subtly over the years, but there were a few that I would have never recognized without the nametag.

4) The spouses can be fun to talk to -- Since I went to college in the same state as high school, I knew a couple of the spouses too; we had gone to college together. I felt that I had more current stuff to talk to some of them about. There were no fake exchange of pleasantries, I enjoyed talking to them, plus some of the ones I was introduced to that night were pretty cool. Overall, too many spouses and significant others were there and I would love to have a reunion with no spouses and significant others so it can be a true "class reunion."

5) Some people never change -- I'm glad I got out of my town and went elsewhere, college included. Some of the people that might not have gone to college stayed in town and it was pretty obvious that they still hang out with each other and act a lot of the same ways that they did back in high school. If that's ok with them, then it's ok with me, but I'm glad that I got out and did the things I've done and met the people that I have.

I enjoyed the experience, but I know why they only happen every 5-10 years. I have been in touch with many more people from high school since then, so that's been a good thing. I'll keep going back to my future reunions, I just hope they find a bigger space next time.