Last Saturday night I went to my 40th high school reunion. This was a big deal for me because I have never been to any previous reunions. My memories of high school are okay but not great. My high school was very cliquey and I never felt popular.
Some background - I live a few hours away from my hometown and I don’t have a Facebook page.
First the good part. I reached out to two former best friends ahead of time. Both of these ladies were so warm and welcoming to me. They came to my mom’s house Saturday afternoon before the reunion. One of the girls was a grade ahead of me so she didn’t attend the reunion. She could have because it was open to other classes but she is the caregiver for her elderly mother. The other girl has been attending all the reunions.
As far as the reunion itself, all I can say is meh. I saw several people I hadn’t seen in 40 years and it convinced me that people don’t change.
There was one bad part about the reunion and I am baring my soul to you readers by writing about it. A woman came up to me and the first thing she said was “I have a memory of you and it’s bad / you’re not going to like it”. I’m not kidding - that is how she greeted me after 40 years.
She said that in 10th grade I had written something about her that wasn’t nice. I have no memory of this whatsoever but it certainly made me feel bad. I told her I didn’t remember writing anything like this but if I did I was sorry. The rest of our brief conversation reinforced that she is not a nice person. Which makes me wonder if I did write this because I disliked her 40 years ago. How would she have seen it or known about it anyway?
My mom said the whole thing is silly because even if I wrote anything, I was a 15 year old kid.
My husband thinks it is hilarious that this woman has been coming to reunions for 40 years just waiting to confront me. I have been wracking my brain trying to recall this and nothing rings a bell. Oh well.
Did I get to say hello to a few people from the past? Sure, but who cares. They have their lives and I have mine.
Wow! How weird that that lady has been sitting on this for that many years!! I don't even remember anything specifically about anyone. Actually the person in charge of the environmental agency that deal with gas. A sticker with her face and name is on every single gas pump in the state. She graduated with me and I have not the faintest idea who she is. I need to look in a yearbook.
ReplyDeleteMan, that must have been a huge weight on her shoulders for YEARS. That's a good reminder for us not to get hung up on things like that and hold those grudges for so long. Eek! I am glad there were some fun times at the reunion, too!
ReplyDeleteI am attending my 20 year college reunion this weekend and the only person I care to see is my college roommate, who is the person who invited me, and begged me to go with her. It's not that I didn't like the people I knew in college, but I didn't know them well, I was introverted and they were only friends with me because I was friends with my roommate. I guess we'll see how it goes. . .
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