This past weekend I attended my 20-year high school reunion. It does not seem as if 10 years has (or is it "have"?) passed since the last one (well, technically 10 years hasn't past, since our 10-year reunion was in the fall of 1999). But as we all know, time marches on.
Two things struck me about this reunion as compared to the last one.
1. I cared so much less what people thought this time around.
Ten years ago, I was focused on my appearance. For that reunion, I was hoping to drop a few pounds, since I was pretty skinny in high school. This time around, I figured this is who I am, and this is what I have weighed for almost 20 years now, so why be something I am not. I was also not so concerned about what I wore this time, but I decided to heed my friend Jennie's advice and make an effort on my appearance, something I rarely do.
Last time I also wanted people to think I was successful. In fact, as I probably have written before, I got my boss to agree to change my title from editorial assistant to editor, just in time for the reunion. In all fairness, I really wasn't an editorial assistant anymore, but, regardless, I just thought editor sounded more impressive. As you know, I don't have a job now. And yet, oddly enough, I really was not bothered by that. In fact, most people did not even ask me what I did. Mostly people talked about where you lived or how many kids you have. And in my case, at least a half dozen people found it necessary to ask why I was not going to have any more kids. (I will save that rant for another post.)
I am not in the same place as I was 10 years ago. Most noteworthy, I have a child who means the world to me. Almost everything else is rather insignificant.
2. Thanks to Facebook and a website dedicated to our class, most of us have kept up to date on one another.
This means I knew what most of my classmates looked like, what their marital status is, and what is going on in their lives. Last year, before I was on Facebook, I was so excited about seeing everyone, since I had not seen most of my classmates in 10 or 20 years. But a few months ago, I realized the evening probably would not live up to the hype, just because there were very few people I knew nothing about.
Fortunately, my mind is like a sieve, so I forgot about half of what I read about everyone. And for most people, pictures do not do them justice. But most importantly, seeing and talking to someone LIVE is totally different from online communications. You just cannot replace human contact. Plus you cannot dance with each other online!
I am glad I went. I had a good time. And perhaps not another 10 (or 20) years will go by before I see most of these people again. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how things have changed then.
Comments
I mostly hung around the few people I had kept in touch with over the years, but I did try to talk to almost everyone. I much preferred college to high school, but having a PSU reunion, when there was 35k people there when I went, would not be feasible!