My 10-year High School Reunion

Excerpts from my diary:

When I was a junior in high school I visited the high school I would have attended had I not moved to Colorado when I was 13 years old. We were a very small class – about 90 students. I was excited to see these people that I had grown up with from Kindergarten through 7th grade, whom I hadn’t seen in years. But I was hurt and disappointed when they weren’t excited to see me. Some of them even ignored me. I could hardly believe it. I never went back. I think I subconsciously expected my classmates from SHHS to react the same way, but I was pleasantly surprised.

When we graduated, I think all of us IB kids were very career minded, and over the years some of us have discovered that there are things more important to us than being “successful” by the academic standard. This is not something I would have expected ten years ago. And those who have continued to be ambitious in their careers have done so because that’s what they enjoyed, not because they had something to prove like we did in high school. At least, this is true of those who were there tonight and others I know who did not attend.

Yana made an interesting observation: those who attended the reunion were the ones who really enjoyed high school and the ones who are happy with their lives now and comfortable with the decisions they’ve made. (Yana and I were pleased to fit both categories.) I added that it was the ones who really enjoyed high school that were drunk and the ones happy with their lives who remained sober. (And there was a clear distinction between those of us who were sober and those who were not!) But I think Yana was absolutely right. And that’s not to say that those who did not come did not enjoy school or were not happy with their lives, but those who either disliked school or were unhappy with their lives would be considerably less likely to want to spend an evening with people they hadn’t seen in ten years.

I was surprised to hear people say that I looked like I had grown up. Particularly my IB friends mentioned this. They said that more than anyone else, I looked different. That really surprised me! I didn’t do anything to make myself look better or older today than any other day. Maybe it's the shorter hair and the extra 15 pounds.

I wish that more IB people had come to the reunion. We were all a big family in high school. We went through a lot together in that program and we had a lot of respect for one another. I think that’s why the IB folks that did come were my favorite to visit with. We had a lot in common in terms of the character traits that put us together in that program, and those are things that last, so we still have a lot in common. I didn’t see it back then because I hadn’t met enough people to know the difference. There were plenty of others at the reunion that I knew, but never spoke to because I just didn’t have anything to say.

So, I’m glad I went to the reunion. It's put my high school memories in perspective and given me a new appreciation for this chapter of life. But I’m still glad these only come up every 10 years.