This is a list of the many excuses reasons behind why I won't be attending my twentieth High School Reunion this year. Just in case there are any other kindered souls out there, or other laggards who hadn't RSVP'd yet. [1]
1. I am certainly not old enough to have been out of high school twenty years already.
2. I attended three different high schools in four years. [2] It's hard to know which reunion to attend! One of them is ten thousand miles away from home, and truthfully is the one I really wish I could go to, though most friends from that school face a similar geographic challenge.
Me and some high school folk from one of those high schools in a cafeteria (aka "the canteen") that wasn't so scary once you got the hang of it. I particularly liked how we didn't bother with lockers and just used the cubbies (over my shoulder.)
3. Due to aforementioned moving around a bunch, my memory for actual names and faces, a skill I have never been particularly good at, is extremely suspect, current facebook friends (who actually USE a photograph for a profile picture! [4]) notwithstanding.
4. My husband doesn't want to go.
5. I don't like attending social events solo. I like talking to people, connecting with people online, being with people in person, but going to an event solo (even if I'm meeting someone I know there) often gives me hives. Introverts, as it turns out, find this sort of thing extremely unpleasant. And, just to counter an expectation/assumption - it's not nerves exactly. It's the unknown, perhaps?
6. And when I think of that I think of what it was like to walk into a crowded lunchroom the first day of senior year (at a new high school - third in four years remember!) and how hard I had to work at not barfing. In that case, though, that was definitely nerves. Those people will be there, they might remember the green tone of my skin. And they probably all remember my name.
7. Okay, now I'm just looking for things to fill up my list, but the options for the reunion were either a no-drinks price, or an open-bar price about $20 more. I'm a one or two drinks kind of gal. Definitely don't want to pay for an open bar I wouldn't be sloshing around in (we're just very careful about limits and driving and all that stuff that you should too.)
8. My son, who is playing baseball for the first time this year
(and at age 9 is the ONLY kid who has never played ball before, sigh) has a game late that afternoon, and he's been doing amazingly well. Gets a hit pretty much every time he's at bat. For having never played before, we're in awe. And I don't want to miss any more games than I must.
9. Because the very next weekend I will miss the first game of his ever. I'm taking a five day trip without kids [5] and I don't want to be gone another Saturday night. Even though they're old enough and they'll be fine and everything is fine and all that.
10. I haven't made my botox appointment yet.
How about you? Did you go and enjoy yourself? Not go and regret it? I'd particularly love to hear from people who had more than one high school reunion to choose from. While I would like to reconnect with people in person, a lot of my desire to connect and "see what's happening with folks" is met via facebook (although y'all [6] need to post more pictures! And talk about what you do for a living...)
Can you tell I'm still just a smidge conflicted? ;)
[1] You know, because they were waiting to find out if I was going.
[2] No, they weren't "alternative high schools" for delinquents. My family moved twice IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Both times during High School. [3] I'm not counting the move from one street to another in the same town (1/2 mile, maybe even 3/4 of a mile apart) when I was five.
[3] Yes, that explains a lot about me.
[4] Pet peeve of mine - people who don't use photographs for profile pictures, at least some portion of the year. You don't have to use a photo all of the time, heaven knows I'm only in photos about twice a year, but at least on occasion would be nice so you can help the memory trigger for people like me.
[5] First of that sort of thing ever. I'm a wee bit nervous but I'm going to the Oregon coast for a writer's workshop, focus is on marketing and selling that novel I've been talking about for far too long. I am excited about what I'll learn, excited to get the novel out the door to possible buyers, and excited about seeing that part of the country. Oooh, and my friend Renee! I'm really looking forward to it.
[6] I like to think of myself as an honorary Texan, after all the project days I spent in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and didn't I even go to El Paso once? I've lost track. And besides, saying "y'all" makes me think of Olivia D., and that's never a bad thing. :)
Are you going to the Superstars Writing Seminar this time?
Posted by: Inarticulate Babbler | September 20, 2010 at 12:06 AM
Haha, I just discovered your blog Karen, and this post is quite timely. My 20 year reunion is tomorrow night. I'm going, at least for part of it, if only to remind myself that I'm all grown up now and really have nothing in common with the me-of-the-80s ;)
Posted by: Ben-M | October 20, 2010 at 07:02 PM
OOh - have fun, Ben! It should be a good time, particularly if you went to at least 3 or 4 years of school with these people! In retrospect, I think my biggest issue was the fact that I only went to that school for one year and felt like there were very few people I knew who would be there.
Posted by: Karen Smith | October 20, 2010 at 07:40 PM