I’m so jealous you were able to go! I would love to have been able to make it to the reunion (same college, you all, yes I was lucky enough to take classes with Arwen) and seeing pictures on facebook has been making me tear up all weekend. I would also love to go to a highschool reunion - my highschool was really small and I made some good friends. Fortunately Facebook has made it easier for me to keep up with highschool and college friends despite having moved pretty far away from both my highschool and my college. 

I have not nor do I have any future intentions of returning to my high school group…just was never close to any of them. College, though…sounds like we have something in common, Arwen—my college is gone too! Yes, I’ve stayed close to many of them. I organized the last major reunion (and that was 14 years ago). I don’t want to organize another one, but if someone else did, I’d try to go. Our group was just too small to have much organized alumni activities.

High school: went to my 10th & “endured” it; was out of state & therefore apparently m.i.a. for my 20th.
College: you couldn’t PAY me enough $$ to go!
 
I guess I re-verted to Catholicism, got married, moved out of state, got busy w/babies & pretty much lost interest/curiousity in my previous life. Maybe a wee bit jealous of those of you with close ties to early years, but plenty enough on my plate right now to keep me busy!

Went to my 10th high school reunion this fall and had mixed feelings about it.  It was really nice to talk to a few people, but I was disappointed.  You could have transported everyone from the place where it was held back to the cafeteria with no problem.  Since it was a class of about 50 kids, this was pretty obvious.  I guess everyone needed their comfort zones, which I can relate to.  I immediately felt as insecure as I did in high school.  Perhaps if we had stayed a little later (had to get back to my nursing baby) things would have eased up a bit as the evening wore on.  Would LOVE to attend a college reunion, though.

I went to my 5th highschool reunion, and that’s it.  I am in touch with some highschool and college friends on Facebook, and my best friend from college is my son’s godmother.  But otherwise my life is so different now, and I really travel in different circles.

I’m so glad for you that you had such a nice experience in collage.  I did not attend my high school 10 year, it just feels like so much happened that I want to move on from.  A whole lot of fun memories, but so many sad/difficult memories that I want to learn from, and not re-visit:) 
It makes to happy to hear people who say they just loved high school, I loved parts of it, but ended up feeing like I had no place there, no purpose, and was just so very excited to leave!  I feel a bit ill each time I return to my parents home, because I suppose I feel like people put you in the place you were 10 years ago.  They don’t know what’s happened in your life.  I know they mean well, and I try to take it all with charity, but I usually end up feeling like I want to break into tears after going to Safeway and running into 5 people I used to know!  Silly, I know.  I try to grow out of this habit, realizing that people who stayed in our little town have grown and changed also.  I’m visiting in a few weeks, and am determined to make a huge effort to just take them (old classmates) as new and interesting people I used to know, not people who used to ignore and tease me. 
I suppose it’s God’s little way of pushing me to think outside myself and continue to grow up… and closer to him:) 
On a happier note, God has richly blessed me with amazing new friends who are holy and kind women who lift me up daily.  I suppose that more than makes up for high school!

I’m glad to see I’m not alone in the not wanting to go back department. I attended a large state school that doesn’t have reunions for college. High school, I missed the 10th and have no intentions on going to the 15th. High school was a truly miserable time for me and I have no desire to relive it or have people who didn’t care about me then pretend to care now. I’m in touch with the people I chose to keep in touch with.

My husband’s 30th reunion is in 2 weeks. We aren’t sure if our schedules will allow us to attend. He loved high school and his best friend is planning this reunion. Unfortunately his best friend is trying to bully people into coming because he didn’t realize that it would cost money to be in charge. This guy has gone so far as to tell someone they should pay their money and show up if they could (the person in question’s son is getting married the next day and she is unsure how they will time things). So, a word of advice to anyone out there who might be planning a reunion: it costs a bit of money and you won’t get 100% participation no matter what because some people you won’t be able to find and some, like me, won’t come no matter what. Don’t spend money you don’t want to or can’t afford to.

Great post!  I went to my 15th h.s. reunion and the first evening, a dinner and dance, was great—I went without my husband and had a nice time reminiscing (I always feel sorry for the non-grad. spouse, boring!)!  However, the next day was planned out for families (I went with my preschool-aged son) and I had thought it would be lovely, but I quickly realized that after our intial catching up the night before, we didn’t have much at all in common and after a time tried to find a gracious way to depart early. 

The ‘moral’ of my story was, pick one reunion event and enjoy it.  I didn’t want to just hang out with friends that I already kept ties with as that seemed clique-ish as someone here said earlier (and people who did do that were off-putting and even rude), so I learned that it was nice simply to see how everyone was doing, wish them well and leave it at that.

My husband and I just attended our 10 year high school reunion a couple of weeks ago, and I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I feel comfortable enough in my own skin now, it didn’t really feel like I had gone back in time. Some people had changed, some people seemed the same as the day we graduated. We attended a small, public school and only live in the next town over, so I guess I’ve seen quite a few of these people over the last 10 years anyway. If anything, attending the reunion reaffirmed that I’m very happy with the life my husband and I have created. We got married at the ages of 19 and 20, and had 4 kids by the time we were 25 and 26. The same people who thought we were crazy have now started having families of their own, and kept making comments about how we did it the “right” way by starting young. (Not that there are “right” or “wrong” ways, but I guess the way we chose was right for us!) Overall, it was an event that I felt a little apprehensive about attending, but it turned out to be a nice evening out for my husband and I, catching up and reminiscing. (Now that I think about it, it may have helped that we were high school sweethearts, so I didn’t feel alone, we were in it together, so to speak.)

I am old enough to have had a few reunions however there were two official ones and though I planned on attending when I first heard the news ( both times) I had changed my mind by the time money and committment were due. THough I was not bullied, neither was I super popular and though seeing some that I haven’t seen in years would be awesome ( most of these people were not going to either one)I couldn’t really care less about seeing others.

My 20th college reunion at The Catholic U. Of America, is this Fall. I can’t wait to go and get to see everyone’s kids. A bunch of us are in touch, and see each other regularly,  but not all together like it used to be, so I am really looking forward to it.

We have opposite experiences, in that after 150 years, my High School is no longer. this would be the year for my 25th, and some of us are trying to plan something. A lot of us returned for the last event before the school closed last Spring, but it was too sad to be labeled as fun. Facebook helps a lot, we get to take a peek into each other’s lives.

Glad you got to enjoy yourself, isn’t it fun to see how people grow up?