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April 05, 2004
Achtung Terminänderung!!!

My High School is almost 400 years old… I graduated form the HoLa in 1989… 15 years ago… and now there is going to be a reunion, a complete get together of the winners, the losers and some of the ones in between…
The title of this entry was also the title of the email I received this morning. The date of the reunion has been moved to Saturday, 07/03/04… (what incredibly lucky numbers.)
The date has been moved because of some of those who will arrive from “overseas”… there were particular requests…
The email also contained a file with the names of those who could not be found… (I obviously had been found, so my information was not distributed…)
I do not thing I want to go. I think I will not go. I’m not going.
There is not one good thing that could come out of this reunion for me. Whom would I get to see? Those who were more ambitious than me? They were painful at times then and they will be painful again.
Will I reconnect with long lost friends? (hardly.) Will there be some embarrassing games? (Very likely.)
Do I want to get really nicely jet-lagged for such an event?… I don’t think so…
So please forgive me friends (and “friends”)… I do not think I will be there.. I will just stay here, keep writing, keep working… it is so easy to find me… it is incredibly easy to get in touch with me… let’s make tiny, personal, one on one reunions…
If you went to school with me and would like to stay in touch… please leave a comment here or send me an email… oh well…
(what the heck am I afraid of?)

How was your High School / College / Kindergarten Reunion… any positive experiences?… (the comments are now open…)

Comments

Yay, the comments are back!
Do you want to fly me to your reunion and I'll pretend I'm you? I'll also have to pretend that I lost my tongue doing something dangerous (chewing on the back of pencils for too long?), as I don't know how to speak german. Let me know...my bags are packed.

Posted by: Ali on April 6, 2004 01:00 AM

Ali, this is a fantastic idea! You could tell them that you are the result of an experiment gone extremely right.. I tried to rejuvenate myself and voilá!... oh that would be quite wonderful! Maybe several people could go and claim to be me...

Posted by: Witold Riedel on April 6, 2004 01:11 AM

ohh but there is bound to be somewhere there who has achieved absolutely nothing, which will leave you feeling faaabulous about yourself.

you should feel fabulous anyway, dammit! you have done so much and had a pretty good life if you think about it, there's plenty to show off at a reunion. just hire a helicopter and land in the middle of the playground and get someone to roll out a red carpet for you... all the kids will oohing and ahhing, "wow, i always knew he would be successful" and/or "damn that witold!"

Posted by: shauny on April 6, 2004 08:41 AM

Shauny's last sentence "damn that Witold!", made me visualize a blonde, lanky german with small, round spectacles, shaking his fist and gritting his teeth. Go to the reunion, I want you to take a picture of that guy.

Posted by: Ali on April 6, 2004 09:49 AM

I don't blame you. If you haven't had anything to say to them in the last 15 years, you're not going to now.

Just my personal opinion.

Posted by: QC on April 6, 2004 12:05 PM

Reunions always seem sort of odd. Why would anyone go? If they are close friends or someone you care about, obviously you would have never lost touch to begin with. :)

Posted by: T on April 6, 2004 12:29 PM

If you're alive and healthy, why not go? What harm could come of it?

Posted by: Stacy on April 6, 2004 01:35 PM

I learned my own hard lessons about reunions and now choose to avoid them. I like your idea of "one on one" reunions with people who matter to us. There were few positive lessons for me at my 20-year high school reunion two years ago, but the negative lessons were a gift of foresight and knowledge to NOT attend any more of them.

Posted by: Janet on April 6, 2004 01:35 PM

The main reason you shouldn't go is that it would be scary to see people who are almost 400 years old.

Posted by: andrea on April 6, 2004 03:48 PM

A High School reunion is something that I will never be invited to. So, my advice/thoughts/whatever remain in Kindergarten. And I am actually still in touch with those kids but we never did have a reunion. Why are reunions always after 5 and 10 years, or 20...How about 7, 14 and 21.

Posted by: Emily on April 6, 2004 06:00 PM

I enjoyed my reunion immensely, but I also would not have travelled 4000 miles to attend it. It was wonderful for several hours. Go perhaps just for the visual impact of seeing faces of whom you have thought NO thoughts about for over 10 years and then being flooded with your mind's stored memories of them...We all traded business cards (to show-off how successful we were), and, of course, none of us ever called each other afterward...like I said, it was very fun for an evening. I was amazed and saddened to learn of one good friend's death and of another's incarceration.

Posted by: Patrick on April 7, 2004 02:50 AM

My reunion consisted of people pretending they didn't recognize each other. It was weird. I think it was a 15 year reunion. I think I will stay home for the next.

Posted by: Donna on April 8, 2004 03:02 PM

I would go simply because you don't know what could come of it. Maybe something fabulous that you can't even imagine. Or maybe just (re)connecting with someone whom you never in your life thought you would (re)connect with. Plus, there's got to be other things you can do while over there... other things to do and to see. ;) Postcards to send to fellow bloggers you've never met? If it makes you feel any better I've got a reunion this year too (but five years more than yours). I'm a little scared... I have not followed the traditional path by any means, but look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to. Or not. Maybe I will stay home, too.

Do you want to swap reunions? We could go as each other's proxy.

Posted by: marya on April 8, 2004 03:34 PM

I would go simply because you don't know what could come of it. Maybe something fabulous that you can't even imagine. Or maybe just (re)connecting with someone whom you never in your life thought you would (re)connect with. Plus, there's got to be other things you can do while over there... other things to do and to see. ;) Postcards to send to fellow bloggers you've never met? If it makes you feel any better I've got a reunion this year too (but five years more than yours). I'm a little scared... I have not followed the traditional path by any means, but look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to. Or not. Maybe I will stay home, too.

Do you want to swap reunions? We could go as each other's proxy.

Posted by: marya on April 8, 2004 03:47 PM
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