Current mood: cheerful
So I recently took the rather splendid opportunity to return to my hometown in Washington with a couple things on my agenda. One of those things will be the main topic of my reflections here today. My 10 year high school reunion of the graduating class of Rogers High School of 1996.
My first suggestion when contemplating whether or not to attend would be to just go! I would not be concerned with many of the things I might bring to your attention here that might be construed as undesirable and dissuade you from attending your own reunion. Yours will definitely be a different experience than mine. I say "just go" because I doubt there are many social experiences in life to compare to it. It is sort of a unique situation with lots to learn from if you are open to the possibilities.
A few observations:
1. People have ten years of changing to do individually but generally tend to stick to the same old social trends and cliques that they were once familiar with when they were still going to high school. I don't think this is a necessarily negative thing... just a bit of an entertaining spectacle since people generally have changed individually and those old tendencies create a sort of awkward scene to behold. People don't always recognize each other, nervously glancing at name tags to find those formerly easily recognizable distinctions. I wonder what it feels like to search for that comfortable clique only to be mislead by your own eyes. I was sort of a nomadic figure in high school so, while I recognized many of those social conformities, I was always more content to watch them as a casual, interested observer, from within or without. Which put me in a relatively comfortable position in this entirely new, unique setting anyway.
2. People genuinely do want to find their good ol' buddies and reconnect again. This is perhaps the original intent of the reunion in the first place so it does stand to reason that this would be the goal of many of those attending. I myself quite looked forward to seeing many of the people there. Even though many of them were somewhat casual friends in high school I still feel very connected to many of them for whatever reason. A familiar face and a friendly smile is always a bonus to life.
3. Some people really take to the alcohol in a serious way. The alcohol is likely there for the purely financial benefit of the venue putting the whole event on... but I am sure they intend for a secondary benefit to those actually in the event... namely, that those in attendance can loosen up enough to put whatever nervous tensions brought about by the situation behind them and be able to socialize... sort of. It is sad to me because I know it to be a slippery slope that many don't understand how to control very well with that level of tension driving them, and it really drags me down to see somebody in such a position
of dependency. Maybe I shouldn't talk since I am not one who has any personal experience with alcohol. I only know what I have seen it do to those around me... which I have little tolerance for. Alcohol addiction is EVIL and I would never wish it upon anybody! Climbing off my soapbox now...
4. Everybody gets their preprogrammed replies going fairly smoothly pretty early into the night. This isn't necessarily a bad thing either. It allows for a quicker escape from the accidental connection to somebody in the wrong social caste... which is generally nice for both parties involved. It is kind of annoying for the people actually there for a real conversation or who are genuinely interested. A certain level of adaptation takes place, though, and they learn the game as well. It only takes a brief while to figure it out. --- Everyone is generally doing well... they want to know(audibly) what you are up to and if you are doing well... general small-talk about the oddity of the whole situation ensues... and wandering eyes keep the conversations short as each new target is acquired by one or both parties involved in order to keep the ebb and flow of the evening in motion... and onto the next participant. --- Positivity is the key. And while I did hear mention that there were a few people there actually keeping it real enough to mention the negativity of their own lives, I did not experience it first hand even once. Negativity is definitely an extremely awkward enhancement in such an already awkward environment. Tough stuff.
5. Some people look exactly like they did 10 years prior, but mostly everyone looks fairly different with some people looking like totally foreign comparisons to their former selves. This is the nature of the physical body... change happens. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. It is not something to be worried about in either case. The friends most people are really there to see are happy to see each other in either case. Everybody else's opinion likely holds whatever weight is given it but realistically does not
matter, especially since it is likely the only night most of those people will cross paths for the next ten years... and in some cases ever again.
Anyway... I had almost five hours of observation and interaction to inspire this ridiculously long installment. It was a totally entertaining time for me. I really wish it could have been longer and more people would have gone. But maybe that is just me.
To all who attended within the eyeshot of my blog: Thank you for coming! You are all awesome people! You really made an already good vacation even better! Please stay in touch as you feel comfortably inclined. For everybody else who did not, or could not, make it I hope to see y'all at the next one or sooner.
Here are some pictures from the event:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rampics96
I did not shoot these.
I snuck my way into several... think of it like "Where's Cas?" if you wanna make a game out of it.
Take care all,
Aaron
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