Reunited and It Tastes So Good…
Few things are sillier than the high school reunion. Maybe the 20th high school reunion! This pamphlet arrived yesterday announcing mine. Themed “Another Moment In Time” (echoes of prom themes), it has cliché written all over it: the company that makes a living producing these things, the call for ads so that you can network, the “Be A Star!” request for photos, the promise of “dancing to our favorites,” a “reunion video show,” and “most importantly, special high school friends!” As if high school wasn’t generic enough; the reunion must be even more generic. This generic reunion, though, comes with a price. $143.10 to be exact.
But it is nice to be remembered, isn’t it? The generic framed by the “personal.” I especially like the custom photo. Since we didn’t have digital photos when I was in high school, this year book photo must have been scanned in and then drawn off a database by a script. Nice. I remember that my pimples were air-brushed out back when it was first taken.
All of this begs the question: Why would one want to go to a high school reunion? Who can I remember after 20 years? Why would I want to remember them? Why would they want to remember me? And if we found ourselves standing side by side drinking crappy beer, what would we discuss? One of the “extras” you get with this pamphlet is the ability to log into reunited.com’s site and see who is coming! So I did. And the thing is, I don’t remember any of these people. Their names do not ring a bell. Granted, I went to a high school where my graduating class was 1,000 kids. But you’d think a few would come to mind? Nada.
Such is the cost of growing up in the suburbs of a major city. High school ain’t to me what it was to the kids in Breaking Away. No townies. No cutters. No “remember whens…” No “You’re not the quarterback here!” I have barely any memories at all. There are tropes of nostalgia, and one would think high school is an important one. But my nostalgia fixates elsewhere….record covers, drinking, the army, computers, comic books….
All of this is to (sort of) say that my high school is having a reunion, and - list or no list - I have no idea who will be there.
I don’t think the lack of nostalgia is limited to those who attend large high schools. I graduated with 68 other bored/boring Midwesterners (yes, there were 69 of us), and I don’t have any longing to see any one of them. For anyone who realizes that the world is bigger than their hometown/high school, those years suck. So, are you going?
Comment by comoprozac — April 17, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
Huh, I too graduated with a small class (56), and I had to organize our five year class reunion (I was class president). I hated organizing the reunion and being obliged to go, but now that I am not obliged to go, I’m somewhat looking forward to my later class reunions. I suppose I have no desire to see most of my classmates, but there are a good dozen or so that I would love to hang out with again. I suppose my nostalgia lingers in high school a lot, though, even if those years did suck (though is 8 years enough to constitute nostalgia? I suppose so). Of course, coming from a small, rural town, there is no way there would be a $143.10 cost to attend the class reunion. Heck, we’d all consider $20 too much.
Comment by Michael Faris — April 17, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
So, are you going?
oh no…
Comment by jrice — April 17, 2007 @ 2:59 pm
[…] Like Jeff, I recently received an invitation to my high school’s twenty-year reunion. I’m ambivalent about it: somewhat curious, but also not eager to spend a lot of money for a lame DJ and chatting with folks I mostly don’t remember. With my military service, I’ve taken a career path somewhat different from Jeff’s, but it’s interesting to think about what happens in twenty years. […]
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