20th Class Reunion (high school): Yes or No?

[SacredCow]

Poll question: 20th Class Reunion (high school): Yes or No?

Mine is coming up, and I can't imagine a worse hell. I hated most of them then, and I hear that many of the worst ones have become MORE obnoxious.

So what's your take on class reunions in general? Do you go, or do you avoid them?

[Lyric]

1. God no.

I was treated like shit by just about everyone in high school. I have zero desire to see 99% of those people, and for the ones I *do* want to see, there's always Facebook.

[SacredCow]

8. I wasn't a complete outcast....

I surely had a circle of friends, and was able to move throughout some of the cliques...

But as you said- I have zero desire to see 99% of them. I kept in touch with a few of them early on, but when they started getting all obnoxious, I cut them out of my life.

[Strong Atheist]

2. Agree with everything you said. nt.

[Shell Beau]

3. I would go! I had a great time in high school.

I came from a tiny graduating class though. Only 40 in the whole senior class.

[mikeytherat]

4. My 20th was designed around a weekend for golf and children.

We have no children, we do not golf, we did not go.

mikey_the_rat

[HopeHoops]

5. Three important points:

1) My wife was the youngest looking woman in the place
2) Some of the girls I had the hots for in HS looked like they were ten years older than me
3) I got drunk
4) None of the real assholes showed up
5) Era-appropriate dance music

Okay, make that FIVE important points ;}

[MajorChode]

6. HS reunions are a blast!

You get to see all the stuck up girls that are now fat and/or thrice divorced. You get to see all the hotshot jerks that are losers still living at home with momma. You get to see all the assholes who are now professional alcoholics. And some of your friends show up who turned out to be regular folks, just like you.

[JVS]

7. If you don't make it to 10, you might have a good reason. If you don't make it to 20 it shows you..

are afraid to show up.

[SacredCow]

9. I think I have a good reason for not attending 10 and 20....

I'm really not interested in how their lives turned out, nor am I interested in sharing my accomplishments with them.

YMMV, of course.....

[KamaAina]

10. We didn't even have a prom, or a valedictorian, for that matter

guess who that would've been? (Hint: Only one grad from the small private school, many of whose students had been separated from the public school system for disciplinary reasons, made it to the Ivy League.) So I doubt we'd even have one.

Amazingly, headmaster Nick is still around; he was no spring chicken even in '81! Someone needs to tell him to get the school the hell off the Moonie-affiliated UB campus, though! (in my day, it was directly across the street from me!)

http://t-u-s.com/about.html

[CatholicEdHead]

11. With Facebook, probably will not go to my 20th

as I am connecting with quite a few of my former classmates that way.

[SacredCow]

13. I don't have a facebook account....

or myspace or anything of the sort...

I guess I figure that if I lost touch with someone, there was probably a reason!

[Deep13]

12. It was awesome!

My HS class was great. Especially compared to my home life.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Oh, go!

I went to my 25th and got my first novel out of it.

The classmates who ending up reading it never recognized themselves, which tickled me.

Go. You don't get many chances in this life to take a look back. It's fun, and then you go back to your real life.

[SacredCow]

15. I wish my college curriculum would have a reunion....

THAT I would attend- Cool, intelligent people!

So many of my HS classmates were nothing but a waste of oxygen.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. I went to one college reunion

It was interesting - and great fun - but it didn't come close to the richness of the high school reunion.

Different times, different people.

[kentauros]

17. I can't say I "hated" my peers,

but the majority of my friends were either younger or older and most in Band. Hell, I have a hard time staying in touch with former co-workers that were good friends at the time!

I made better friendships with the teachers. How often do they show up to the reunions? ;)

[Left Is Write]

18. I went to mine. Had a good time.

[flvegan]

19. My 20th is this year.

I *might* go.

[bigwillq]

20. We only had one reunion so far

and I went. It was for my 10th.

[shanti]

21. how about "other"?

i went to my 20th ONLY, and after that, will never go to another one again!

[Droopy]

22. I'd go just to show them all how good looking I am now days.

:D

[RoyGBiv]

23. I went to my 10th ...

That was all the reason I needed not to bother with the 20th.

[LibDemAlways]

24. My friends and I in HS were all ghosts - the kids who

floated through unnoticed and uninvolved. Fast-forward twenty years. I decided to finally participate belatedly by actually organizing the 20th reunion. I did a damn good job too, at least according to all the classmates who heaped high praise on the only other person in the class with my first name. (She had been a cheerleader.) No one except my old crowd had any idea who I was and no clue that I was the person who organized the event.

So much for reunions. If you had good reason to hate your classmates, don't bother going. They won't have changed, and neither will your opinion of them.

[MrSlayer]

25. No. Why would I go hang out with people I didn't hang out with 20 years ago?

I just keep track of who I've outlived. Other than that I have no interest at all in my high school classmates.

[Starry Messenger]

26. I went to mine.

It was pretty awesome. The (former) cheerleaders got really drunk and started dancing on the chairs. Me and my friends got out our cameras and muttered "youtube" to each other in glee.

[Common Sense Party]

27. Not just no, but HELL, no.

I stay in regular contact with the two people I care to from high school. I skipped that 20-year reunion qith no qualms whatsoever.

[eyesroll]

28. I skipped my 10th to work a Sleepless Summer rally.

I cleaned an airport hangar locker room (which was going to be used as a "green room" for the Good Doctor)...I think I got the better end of the deal.

I might go to 20--it's the "official" reunion (read: hosted by the school and not the cheerleaders). We'll see.

[triguy46]

29. Of course you must go!

You might miss something unusual. At my wife's we watched one of her classmates puke into her purse in the parking lot. Now that is, IMHO, a defining description of a HS class reunion.

[femmocrat]

30. Other.

I did go to my 20th and realized that I didn't know those any of those people anymore, so I never went to another one.

I moved away from my hometown when I went to college and never went back except to visit family.

If you are still in touch with your classmates, it would be a lot of fun I guess.

[Lady Effingbroke]

31. Hell no. Why celebrate an unfortunate accident of geographic proximity?

[grace0418]

32. My 20th was last year. Didn't go, never had any intention of going, nor do I intend

to go to any future reunions. I hated high school and don't really care to remember it. Even if *everyone* turned out to be really great (highly unlikely), I just don't see the point. I have plenty of friends who have been awesome since the day we met and with whom I have a lot in common. Why do I need to make small talk with people who were definitely not awesome back then and with whom I have very little in common now?

A few people have contacted me through Facebook and said "we didn't see you at the reunion." Uh, yeah, that was purposeful.

There is one girl from my class who I've met up with and that was fun. There is one other girl who I'd like to see. But I don't need a reunion with the other 350 people in my class to do that.

[gemdem]

33. Sometimes I go, sometimes I don't

Went to my 5th and 20th. I may have gone to my 10th, but I'm damned if I can remember. Skipped all the others and probably won't go to my 30th this year. It's not that I don't have a good time, it's just that it's rarely been worth the hassle. I was one of those kids that everyone knew, sorta liked, and was rarely invited to anything. If I show up folks are glad to see me, and if I don't make it I'm not missed. Kinda like being an extra in a movie -- I was just part of the scenery in high school.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. I went to my 40th, which was fantastic, even though high school was

mostly a miserable experience. After forty years, we'd all grown up, and all that "Heathers"-style nonsense was behind us. Everyone mingled with everyone else. I was nervous about going, but I ended up having a great time.

[RedCloud]

48. This gives me some hope...

I was a globetrotter living in many places and not even in the USA when #10 rolled by. Since I thought I had better times in life at college and after that and met people from everywhere I think I felt I had no reason. But now I think, hey a lot of those folks might need some jump starting or realize I am no longer the shy guy who trembles in front of every girl that goes by. I fixed that! Now I just tremble when the women pass by...

Just kidding, I think

[Fire Walk With Me]

35. Went to my 10th and 20th, skipped the 25th, and avoid facebook/classmates.com.

[Mollis]

36. I am looking forward to mine...

although I just graduated last year, so i have a while to go.

[tigereye]

37. once was enough - one person said I looked the same, and one said I looked

like Princess Leia from Star Wars.... :wtf: I did get to see some old friends from the neighborhood and my old church, but most of the rest seemed stuck in time, and the re-union was more depressing than 7th grade dances used to be. My husband insisted we leave after the DJ started playing YMCA.... :eyes:

[bif]

38. My 20th was horrible. My 30th was fun

The assholes in H.S. were still assholes 20 years later. But they somehow matured by the 30th. I'd skip it.

[SidneyCarton]

39. My ten comes up next year... I'm still ambivalent on whether or not to go.

There are a few people I'd like to see, and a great many who I would be fine with never seeing again. It will probably depend on cost.

[av8rdave]

40. Never had any interest in going to a HS reunion

Never miss a college one - they're a lot of fun, but I don't really feel much "connection" to my HS days.

[Midlodemocrat]

41. Go. You will be pleasantly surprised at the fun you have.

[RushIsRot]

42. I skipped my 10th, but attended my 20th, 30th, 40th and 45th. I even

became the treasurer for those events. I intend to skip the 50th in April of this year because they changed the venue. I was an outcast too during my high school days, but as we matured, we became good friends. Glad I had the experience.

[tabbycat31]

43. my 10 was last year

and I was not invited. Shows what my high school class thought of me.

[bikebloke]

44. I missed my 10th.

At the time, I was living outside the country. But I was a wallpaper person. It would be interesting to see how people aged or who has joined the ancestors. I tried looking in Facebook, but sifting through scads of wannabe gangsta mugs looking for people from 30-some years back was a waste of time. I wish you could search via graduating year.

I wouldn't mind meeting comrades from my kibbutz years. A couple were re-met through free reunion sites like Lost Amigos and Kibbutz Reloaded. And one friend found me through my photo/videos I vlogged of our kibbutz years.

[LanternWaste]

45. I had a blast at both my ten and twenty year reunion...

I had a blast at both my ten and twenty year reunion!

Hard to tell if it was me or them (or both?), but everyone seemed so much more down to earth and approachable on every level. All of the class and social division that had existed were suddenly nothing more than scenes from a bad movie we all walked away from. Both were pretty good, but the Twenty Year Reunion was a serious blast.

The pep squad captain I had the hots for? She bought me a drink and showed me pictures of her husband, kids and house. The ROTC weirdo? Well, he was still weird, but he (drunkenly and) profusely apologized for all the grief he gave me. The band and drama weenies I hung out with (and was myself) are still weenies I would hang out with. Even members of the stoner-crowd were there and having a good time (and I even hit the parking lot with them that evening a few times-- don't know who was more surprised: them or me).

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt-- more so if it's been twenty years after the fact... it's all water under the bridge and we all grow in different and unexpected direction. Were I a betting man, I bet you five bucks you'll be pleasantly surprised a half dozen times throughout the evening... :)

[sakabatou]

46. Our class has yet to have one.

It's going to be in 2016.

[SacredCow]

47. Looks like the No's have it....

So I'm in good company!

When I get the mailer, I'll be sure to throw it away.