50th High School Reunion

When I think about High School Reunions, the old Statler Brothers song comes to mind:

And the class of '57 had its dreams
Oh, we all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deeds
Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs
The class of '57 had its dreams


My 50th is here.  I can't deny it any longer.

I thought High School 50th reunions were for other people, not for people like me.  Just like I once thought arthritis was for other people, but not for me.  Or Medicare, or AARP, or Social Security, or complaining about the younger generation.

After giving it much thought (and much wine), I have decided to travel back to Fort Collins, Colorado and attend mine.

It was actually kind of a big decision because I'm not a keep-up-with-people-from-my-past kind of person.  I'm not on Facebook, and have no intention of ever being on it.   I saw my high school mates at my 10th reunion, and then at my 25th, but have had no contact with any of them since then.

So I really haven't had much interest in keeping up with my high school friends.  It's just not me.

So why go?  I don't know the answer to that, really.

Part of it is that I wouldn't want to not go.  I wouldn't want to always wonder what it would have been like.  And you only get one chance, so it isn't like I could decide later that I had made a mistake and then do something about that.

Another part is that I would like to see the people who attend, to know that they have made it, and have been happy.  As I think back about my high school I realize that there are a lot of people who were nice people.  I assume I'll find out about their life stories, in abbreviated forms, and will be glad to know of all they have done and seen.

I've also wondered a bit whether it is something that a person, in a way, must do.  You have made it 50 years, and none of us who attend were ever guaranteed that opportunity to create lives (and some never had it, of course, which adds to the bittersweet aspect of a 50th).  It almost feels like one is obligated to celebrate something like this.  For all of us to get together and, in one voice, say:  "We were blessed."

There is that philosophy that people spend the rest of their lives living down their high school years.  I think it has an element of truth to it.  For example, I've been laughingly saying that I am going to finally lose that six pounds that I have been trying to get off for the past two years.........but maybe it's not really a joke.  Maybe I mean it.  I'll contemplate that thought this evening while I'm eating my salad instead of what I usually eat.  hmmmmm

I used to teach Adolescent Psychology.  One of the concepts in that area of psychology is that of the Imaginary Audience.  This is the idea that people believe that everything they do or say and how they look is the main subject of attention for everyone else.  Of course, the joke on everybody is that it isn't true.  Instead, everybody else is walking around believing the same thing, and thinking everybody is paying close attention to them.

But going to a 50th High School reunion brings up those kinds of thoughts once again.  Or can.  How will I look compared to everyone else?  Nah!  I'm too mature for that kind of thinking.  That's not why I had a dream the other night that one of my high school friends who I haven't thought about in years was getting married and I noticed that he looked just the same as he did in high school.  Not me.  I've grown up.

I do need to get a new pair of slacks for the event, though.  And there is that six pounds.