My 10 Year Reunion Update

Well, ladies. I went.

Back in May, I posted a long nervous rant about going to my high school's 10 year reunion and I wanted to thank you guys for your encouragement and feedback.

So my final verdict? 2 out of 5 stars. Lame-ish. Could have spent that money on cute metallic gladiators instead. Looking back, the only good part was my date: my best friend from high school. And thank goodness I didn't bring my husband. The spouses there looked five times more uncomfortable than I felt and guaranteed a hundred million times more bored.

Why it stunk:

1) My graduating class was pretty large, I'm talking 500 students! Even a 50% turnout would have been cool. But how many ended up showing? Oh ... 85 people. Weak!! The chances of me wanting to catch up with anybody in attendence was pretty slim. Turned out to be very true.

2) It only took one look around the room (which was a sectioned off portion of a community college gym, mind you) to see that not a single guy I dated or even went on one date with, was there. It caught me a little off guard that this was something I noticed right away, I'm happily married and had no intentions of chasing an old flame, but I thought it would have been very interesting, fun maybe? to see one or two of these guys and laugh/chat about old times. Am I weird?

3) The mingling was so awkward, just as I had pictured. What made things worse was that as soon as you got there, there were round tables and people were seated wherever they pleased while a buffet-style dinner kept people planted in their seats and not up and about talking to people. I really wish there was something of a cocktail hour first so that people could mingle a bit more and then be seated for dinner. It took major guts just to think about going to another table to talk to someone.

I could go on, but those are my top three gripes. I agree with CityGal who commented on my orginal post about waiting to go to your 20th reunion instead. In 20 years, more things are likely to change, people grow up a little more. I mean, c'mon, some people at my 10 year were still in school! For their Bachelor's.

Anyway, one thing though, I have to say part of me is glad I went. My best friend and I afterwards commented on how proud of ourselves we were for going. We braved the storm. We went in for the plunge. It was like we needed T-shirts that said in big blocky letters, "I SURVIVED."

I guess the lesson learned here is that if you already keep in touch with the ones you care about from high school, there's no point in going to your 10 year reunion unless for curiousity's sake, or to simply say, "I did it." You won't miss much if you don't go, except for that healthy dose of awkwardness that only high school can bring.