Don't go! That's my advice for you if you ever receive an invitation to a high school reunion. THROW IT AWAY! Of course, most people know this, as did I, but at a moment of weakness at my little sister's bridal shower, I told her new sister-in-law that I'd go with her to our high school reunion.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
First, I spent too much $$ on a new outfit. Yes, it's nice that I got a new outfit out of the deal, but it wasn't necessary and it wasn't worth it!
Also, the stupid event cost $50! Could I have found something better to do with $50?!?! YES OF COURSE! The food wasn't good, there were no activities, and I just talked to people I already talk to. Waste.of.money!
So, I got all dressed up and all that, and my sister's sister-in-law met me at my parent's house. Another girl from my class (incidentally, there were 150 people in my graduating class) with whom I was not friends, and who I have talked to only on Friendster, called me that afternoon and so she decided to go with us. So we all got into the car and drove to the place.
We went in, and there was this 'in memory of' sign near the door, with three names on it. One was a girl who died maybe our freshman year of cancer. Another was a girl who was in a stupid car accident. The third was a girl I had worked with at Brooks (like CVS) all throughout our senior year. She had a baby in maybe April or May of that year. I saw her a couple of times during my first year of college, but never again after that. She was sweet, and very quiet, and had I not worked with her at Brooks, I never would have talked to her. I was hoping she'd be at the reunion, as I hadn't heard about her at all since high school. Turns out, she married the father of the baby (who was also in our class), had another baby, and then got cancer and died in 2002. AWFUL story. Needless to say, that was sort of threw me off as the first thing I saw when I walked into an overall overwhelming situation.
My old Spanish teacher, who took us to Spain in high school, and with whom I've kept in touch, was there at the door, thank God! So I talked to her while I got my bearings (I hate walking into crowded places where I know people). I saw my friends accross the room, so the sister's sister-in-law and I walked over there.
My friend Kristin was talking to this girl who was sort of friends with us in high school, but who had TORTURED me in middle school (she pleaded for forgiveness our senior year, having decided karma was the reason she no longer had friends at that point, but that I was friends with the people she had been friends with in middle school). So Kristin has a son who's six. She told this girl that everytime she looked at his chin, she thought of her because she had made so much fun of her chin in high school. I thought to myself, "Funny. Everytime I had to discuss with an adolescent girl at camp/GS events why not to be mean to other people, I thought of her, too." I kept that to myself, though. This event did not need to be anymore uncomfortable.
Otherwise, it was just boring and a waste of time. I talked to my friends, which was fun, but it would have been more fun to go out to dinner. There were no mixing activities or anything at all, so there was no opportunity to talk to other people. So, everyone talked to the same people they talked to in high school, and nobody else. So dumb.
Then the music got too loud, some dumb jock guy got the microphone and started singing, and it was finally time to go.
So that's that. It was very surreal and strange to see all those people again and to remember them.
