10 Years Later
I decided about 2 weeks ago that I would not be attending the Toll Gate High School Class of ’95’s 10 year reunion tomorrow night. Part of me wanted to go. That part of me wanted to go and see what happened to people, check out who lost weight and who got fat. I wanted to see if those class superlatives were still the same people they were when we walked across the stage at the Warwick Musical Theater that warm day in June. Is the “Most Unusual” Belinda Serabian still dying her hair fire-engine red? Did those voted “Most Likely to Succeed” become millionaires or flunk out of college after their first year? Are the “Most Athletic” students flabby, drunk, 2-pack-a-day white-trash? Part of me wants to look at the preppy cheerleaders and gloat about their post-baby bodies.
There’s other parts of my brain chiming in about the reunion as well. A big part of me doesn’t want to go there weighing roughly 70lbs more than I did when I got my diploma. I’m well aware of the fact that as I’d be sitting there gloating about the cheerleaders and all those in-crowd girls who put on weight, there would be those there who would be looking at me and gloating for the very same reasons.
There’s also the matter of friends. My best friend moved to Minnesota 2 years after we graduated, and prior to that we lost contact with most of the crowd we ran with. I use the term “crowd” very loosely, since our friends were comprised of all those people who really fit in no other group. I was in too many honors classes to hang out with the skaters, but considered most of the students in my classes to be elitest assholes and was never really be friendly with them, and our socialization was limited to asking to borrow someone’s notes from the day before. I had, at most, 5 or 6 good friends in school, only 1 of which I’ve had any contact with in the last 10 years.
Moneywise, even if I’d wanted to go we wouldn’t be able to do so. It would cost us $80 to go to the reunion at a local restaurant. This doesn’t include the valet parking that would be required, since the place offers nothing else. $80 is a decent chunk of change to us right now, and besides, why would we want to go to hang out, even for just one night, with a bunch of people that I didn’t give a flaming rat’s ass about 10 years ago? Logically, if I felt like trying to find everyone, I could use that $80 and organize a mini-reunion between the 5 or 6 of us, complete with pizza and beer and conversations involving how bad we looked back then and how awful our teachers were.
It took me most of highschool to learn not to try to be someone I wasn’t, trying to fit in with everyone. Why the hell should I go back 10 years later and try to do that all over again? I’m not the same person anymore, but I’m willing to bet most of them are the same stuck-up asses they always were.
Tags: pondering, school
Anytime.
Heather´s last blog post..Da-rama Queen! (More house stuff)
@Heather - Thank you for telling him! He tries to steal it all
November 26th, 2005 at 1:55 am
I didn’t go to my reunion and I’m glad about it, too… SCREW THEM, SCREW THEM ALL!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA
PS: Your prom pic is precious.
November 26th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Isn’t it great? I searched long and hard for a pair of white patent-leather Mary-Janes and a matching purse. It’s really a shame I can’t find pictures of me and the 16-year-old coworker of mine that I wrangled into going with me when my high school boyfriend dumped me at the last minute. Those would have been funny.
November 27th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
I didn’t go to my 10-year reunion either…or the 5-year, FTM.
I could’ve written your paragraph about friends and “crowds.” I also only had a few good friends, one of whom I still contact. (We found each other on the web a few years ago.) I also hung out with those who didn’t fit into any other group, and I was in the honors classes with the elitists. Feh.
Every time I’d get a piece of mail about a reunion, I’d start thinking about those days and how non-existent I felt during that time in my life. Nowadays, I’m old enough to realize that if I didn’t exist to them then, there’s no way in hell I’d exist to them now. Sure, I’m curious about how some of them look and act now, and whatever became of them, but you know what they say about curiosity…this cat prefers to stay very much alive, thanks.
November 27th, 2005 at 8:43 pm
I found out about a 5-year reunion after it had already happened. I found a friends of mine from school a couple of weeks ago and he also didn’t go, but dished some dirt he’d heard about what went on. Why pay all that money to see people I wasn’t fond of back then? I mean, there were some that I was friendly with, but for the most part we were indifferent to each other.
January 28th, 2006 at 1:41 am
Hey! Should Have come.
My hair isn’t fire engine red anymore, but still red. (IT SUITS!) And I still get my kicks. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Personal_Galleries/Lostinspace
What’s the point of not enjoying it all?
Blue Skies!
Belinda C
January 28th, 2006 at 1:51 am
I was always me, and I always will be. (for good or bad)
I was planning not to go, also.
… you might have been shocked at what you would have learned that night.
…things aren’t always as they seem.
It was a good night.
You were miss.
January 28th, 2006 at 9:15 am
I was able to hear some interesting stuff, and art of me really wanted to go, but then the logical “adult” part of me chimed in and said “that money could be used for better things.” And like I told Jeremy V., when asked “so what have you been doing these days?” there’s no short story for “Well, I failed out of URI because I went to too many frat parties and was too drunk for morning classes, got addicted to IRC, ran away and worked on a cruise ship, came home, taught myself some programming languages you probably wouldn’t understand, worked in the adult entertainment industry for a while, and got fired from my nice tech support job because I was posting about customers on my homepage. What have you been doing?”