High School Reunions

Recently, I received a message on Facebook asking if I was interested in a 20^th high school reunion. It came out of nowhere from a person who I haven’t seen since high school and haven’t talked to since elementary school. I didn’t respond and deleted the message; I also denied his friend request. We never hung out during class or outside of school. We knew the same people since but didn’t run in the same circle. I never thought of him as a friend.

The reason I didn’t respond or acknowledge the message was because I feel like social media has ruined the meaning behind high school reunions. If people wanted to know what I was doing outside of Facebook and Instagram, they could message me privately. I feel like reunions aren’t as meaningful now because we already know what our classmates are doing.

It’s not that I had a bad time in high school. I loved school, but I really didn’t have anything going on back then that made me stick out and be memorable. If I were to even go to a reunion, I really wouldn’t have much to talk about. I’m in between jobs, I’m not dating anyone, never been married and don’t have kids. I haven’t done that much travelling. I spend a lot of time at home and prefer to spend time within my own company. I keep to myself.  I’m introverted who has a hard time connecting with people and making friends. I was a lot more confident in high school then I am now.

When the 10 year reunion was being “planned” on Facebook, nobody was able to agree on where to have it and the person who originally was planning it backed out so it never happened. There was talks about it happening at a local pub, but the day it was “supposed” to happen, the pub didn’t know anything about it.

A friend of mine who I’ve talked to every once and in a while always mentioned about putting one together and I would suggest things like having it be a drop in, make a Facebook event and if you want to go then feel free to attend, no pressure, but nothing ever came from it.

I feel like reunions are for people who feel like they need to show off and tell people how well their doing. People are stuck in trying to still be popular, trying to make themselves feel like they still matter even when people haven’t thought about them since graduation. It’s their way of showing off.

People drift apart after high school and going to a reunion just to see people that you never hung out with isn’t really something that seems enjoyable to me. I never needed a reason like a reunion to see what someone has been up too. If I wanted to know what's been going on, I would reach out to someone personally, but since none of my classmates have ever checked in on me over the years, I see no point in getting together for a night just to catch up when I could just go on Instagram or Facebook.

Reunions are a thing of the past. There not as “fun” as people think they are. Things are going to be brought up, fights are going to happen and someone is going to get drunk and spill some secrets that were meant to be kept private. Reunions can be dangerous if you’re not careful.